FHE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE 
AVERAGE    MAN 


ALBERT   SHAW 


Southern  Branch 
of  the 

University  of  California 


Los  Angeles 


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THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE 
AVERAGE  MAN 


•The 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO 
ATLANTA   •    SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON   •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


THE   OUTLOOK   FOR   THE 
AVERAGE    MAN 


BY 

ALBERT   SHAW 

AUTHOR    OF    "political    PROBLEMS   OP 
AMERICAN    DEVELOPMENT,"    ETC. 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

1907 

All  righU  reserved 

3315  (o 


COPYBIGHT,  1907, 

By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  November,  1907. 


Norfaooli  iPreaa 

J.  S.  Gushing  Co.  —  Herwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


He 

lO(o 

^53 


PREFACE 

The  five  chapters  of  this  volume  consist  of 
material  originally  made  use  of  in  public  ad- 
dresses to  young  men.  The  first  was  delivered 
to  the  students  of  the  University  of  Chicago  as  a 
Convocation  address.  The  second  and  third, 
respectively,  were  prepared  as  commencement 
addresses  for  Vanderbilt  University,  Nashville, 
Tennessee,  and  Trinity  College,  Durham,  North 
Carolina.  The  fourth  was  the  opening  discourse 
upon  the  Weinstock  Foundation  in  the  University 
of  California,  and  the  fifth  was  presented  at  the 
University  of  Virginia,  on  occasion  of  the  re- 
establishment  of  "  Founder's  Day,"  this  being 
observed  on  Thomas  Jefferson's  birthday. 

The  addresses  were  written  with  some  refer- 
ence to  their  subsequent  publication  in  the  present 
form,  and  they  bear  a  certain  relation  to  one 
another,  though  each  is  complete  in  itself.  They 
have  to  do  rather  with  the  relation  of  the  indi- 
vidual to  present  social,  economic,  and  political 


Vi  PREFACE 

conditions  in  the  United  States  than  to  those 
conditions  themselves.  The  reader  will  not  fail 
to  discover  certain  repetitions ;  but  it  has  seemed 
better  not  to  omit  views  and  statements  that 
belong  properly  in  their  particular  places  in  a 
given  chapter,  merely  because  similar  views  or 
statements  are  to  be  found  in  another  chapter. 

ALBERT   SHAW. 

New  York,  November,  1907. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAOK 

I.     The  Average  Man    under    Changing 

Economic  Conditions        ...         1 

II.     Present  Economic  Problems        .         .       47 

III.  Our     Legacy    from     a    Century    of 

Pioneers      .         .     .         .         .         .93 

IV.  The    Business    Career  and  the  Com- 

munity      ......     135 

V.     Jefferson's    Doctrines     under    New 

Tests        ......     185 


VII 


THE   AVERAGE   MAN   UNDER 
CHANGING   ECONOMIC   CONDITIONS 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOE  THE  AVERAGE 

MAN 

CHAPTER  I 

THE   AVERAGE   MAN    UNDER   CHANG- 
ING  ECONOMIC   CONDITIONS 

What    of   the    position  and    prospects  of  the  Economic 
average  young  man  in  the  face  of  vast  current  ^  ""^^^  "" 
and  impending  changes  in  economic  and  industrial  individual 
society?     Certainly,  I  shall  not  hope  to  exhaust 
a  question  of  such  varied  aspect  and  such  profound 
importance.     I  shall  be  satisfied  if  I  may  make 
some  suggestions  and  observations  that  may  prove 
in  the  least  degree  useful  to  some  young  men  in 
their  tliinking  upon  general  problems,  or  in  their 
dealing  with  more  personal  or  individual  phases 
of  the  economic  and  social  question  —  for  it  is 
obvious  that  there  are  prevalent  just  now  two  kinds 
of  interest  and  anxiety  in  view  of  the  enormous 
transitions  that  are  taking  place  about  us. 
B  1 


2  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  I.  1.    On  the  part  of  many  young  men  who  feel 

A  period  of  that  they  have  their  own  way  to  make  in  the 

changing  u      i  i         . 

landmarks     ^o^ld,  the  natural  optimism  of  youth  is  tempered 

by  a  considerable  anxiety  by  reason  of  the  disap- 
pearance  of  traditional   landmarks.     They   find 
that   new  meanings  must  be  written  into   such 
terms    as    "  success  "    and    "  getting   on    in   the 
world."     A  more  acute  anxiety,  reheved  by  far 
less  of  personal  hope  or  general  optimism,  is  that 
of   older   men    of   fixed    habits    and    diminished 
adaptability,  who  find  themselves  the  victims  of 
displacement  as   new  methods   of  work  and   of 
organization  ruthlessly  supersede  old  methods. 
The  larger         2.    Quite   a   different   sort   of   anxiety   is   that 
Question        which  has  a  somewhat  disinterested  or  philosophi- 
cal basis,  and  concerns  itself  not  so  much  with  the 
question,  "How  shall  these  things  affect  me,  my 
fortunes,    my   future.'"     as    with   the   questions, 
"How  is  the  community  to  be  affected.'"    and 
"Are  these  new  tendencies  making  in  the  general 
sense  for  human  emancipation  and  equality  on 
an  ever  higher  plane,  or  are  they  making  for  a 
new  and  unpleasant  kind  of  social  and  economic 
imperialism,   in  which  the    few  shall  be   pluto- 
cratic   masters    and    the    many    industrial    sub- 
jects?" 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  3 

I  shall  not  try  to  take  these  questions  ponder-        chap.  i. 

ously  or  elaborately,  and  I  shall  be  inclined,  quite 

against  my  usual  habit  of  mind,  to  give  somewhat 

more  attention  to  individual  and  personal  aspects,    The 

and  rather  less  to  economic  generalization.     The  P^'"*^" 

*^  problem 

clean-cut  theory,  the  scientific  formula,  the  beau- 
tiful presentation  of  the  law  of  averages  —  all 
these  bring  only  cold  comfort  to  the  individual 
young  man  who  is  seeking  specific  solutions  for 
his  own  problems. 

If  there  were  grounds  for  trepidation  twenty 
or  twenty-five  years  ago  as  men  peered  over  the 
college  wall,  there  were  not  so  many  notes  of  alarm 
sounded  to  affright  the  student  as  he  is  likely  to 
hear  in  these  days.  The  paragrapher's  jokes 
about  the  college  graduate,  of  course,  have  always 
been  with  us;  but  we  did  not  hear  so  much 
twenty  years  ago  about  the  overcrowding  of  the 
professions  and  the  narrowed  range  of  independent 
opportunity  in  the  business  world. 

Let  me  say  at  once,  to  relieve  suspense,  and  not  No  shrink- 
to  carry  any  needless  air  of  gloom,  that  I  for  one  °^^  "^ 

^  opportunity 

do  not  believe  in  the  least  that  there  is  any  real 
shrinkage  of  opportunity  in  hfe  for  the  worthy 
young  man,  or  that  the  new  conditions  really 
threaten  the  prospects  of  the  individual. 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


Trained 
capacity 
the  best 
asset 


Training, 
with  or 
without 
college 


There  are,  however,  certain  principles  that  have 
new  force  in  these  altered  times  and  that  cannot  be 
stated  with  too  much  emphasis.  One  of  these 
principles  is  that  the  best  possible  investment  any 
young  man  can  make  is  in  himself ;  that  is  to  say, 
in  his  own  training  and  development  for  useful  and 
effective  work  in  the  world.  The  thing  in  general 
to  be  attained  is  power.  The  thing  in  particular 
is  the  special  training  of  some  kind  that  enables 
a  man  to  make  expert  application  of  his  developed 
force  and  ability.  If  trained  capacity  has  been  a 
valuable  asset  in  the  past,  it  becomes  the  one  in- 
dispensable asset  under  the  new  conditions. 

I  shall  not  here  broach  directly  the  question 
whether  or  not  it  is  worth  while  for  the  average 
young  man  to  go  to  college.  My  observation  has 
taught  me  not  to  draw  too  sharp  a  line  in  busi- 
ness or  commercial  life  between  men  who  have 
had  a  preliminary  college  training  and  those  who 
have  not.  It  is  useless  to  lay  down  rules.  Op- 
portunities nowadays  are  so  numerous  and  varied 
that  the  young  man  of  health  and  determination 
may  reasonably  hope  to  make  his  way  in  the  world 
without  regard  to  any  beaten  path.  But  in  one 
way  or  another  he  must  become  educated  and 
trained  for  efficiency. 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  5 

I  have  in  mind  an  illustration  of  this  principle  chap.  i. 
that  the  modern  young  man  should  count  invest- 
ment in  himself,  the  acquisition  of  trained  capac-  A  concrete 
ity,  as  his  one  safeguard,  his  indispensable  asset.  ^^^^'P'-^ 
Two  brothers  were  left  orphans  at  seventeen  or 
eighteen  years  of  age,  each  with  a  small  patrimony 
of  perhaps  ten  thousand  dollars.  One  brother 
was  regarded  as  possessing  a  high  sense  of  pru- 
dence. He  was  determined  under  no  circum- 
stances to  impair  the  principal  of  his  patrimony, 
and  gradually  he  subordinated  himself  to  the 
conserving  of  his  petty  inheritance.  He  was 
afraid  to  embark  in  active  business  because  he 
had  read  that  ninety-five  or  ninety-nine  per  cent 
of  all  business  men  and  business  ventures  meet 
with  failure.  If  he  had  placed  his  capital  at  the 
service  of  his  business  energies,  it  is  quite  true 
that  he  might  soon  have  impaired  it  or  lost  it 
altogether;  but  in  that  process  he  would  have 
gained  his  experience.     And  for  any  young  busi-   Experience 

ness   man   who   has   perseverance   and   force   of  ^«^"«^^« 

,  .  at  anrj 

character,  experience  is  a  good  investment  at  any  -pecuniary 

pecuniary    sacrifice  —  for,    sooner    or   later,    the  ^°^^ 
business  experience  must  be  had,  it  being  a  neces- 
sary endowment  for  ultimate  success  in  affairs; 
and  if  the  experience  can   be  had  young,   Hke 


6  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  I.        measles  or  other  maladies  of  immaturity,  it  does 
not  come  so  hard. 

But  the  young  man  to  whom  I  refer  could  not 
bring  himself  to  risk  his  capital  on  the  perilous 
billows  of  trade  or  commerce,  and  much  less  could 
he  bring  himself  to  the  point  of  doing  the  next 

The  old-       best  thing,  which  would  have  been  to  use  it  up  in 

,      .         mere  expense  or  even  in  self-indulgence.     He  still 

rule  of  ^  ° 

parsimony  exists,  no  longer  so  young.  He  has  become  a 
model  of  economy,  and  he  has  been  adding  some- 
thing to  his  capital  by  saving  a  part  of  the  interest ; 
but  he  is  disturbed  and  distressed  by  the  fact 
that  interest  rates  tend  to  decline  and  by  the 
general  insecurity  of  so-called  "safe  investments." 
As  I  have  watched  this  man  I  have  satisfied 
myself  that  he  is  just  on  the  eve  of  doing  one  or 
the  other  of  two  things.  With  his  now  fifteen 
thousand  dollars  he  will  either  buy  United  States 

Its  government  two  per  cent  bonds  at  a  premium, 

present-day   j^  ^j^-^j^  ^^^^  j^^  ^j|  ^^^^j^  ^^^^  ^^^  j^f^  ^.^j^  ^^ 
results 

income  of  less  than  three  hundred  dollars  a  year, 

or  else  he  will  violently  react,  throw  prudence  to 

the  winds,  and  —  in  the  parlance  of  the  day  — 

buy  a  "  gold  brick."     If  he  were  much  past  middle 

age,  we  should  be  sorry  for  him  if  he  did  not  buy 

the  government  bonds.     But  since  he  is  still  com- 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  7 

paratively  young,  the  gold  brick  would  be  really        chap.  i. 
his  only  means  of  salvation;    for,  having  lost  his 
money,  he  would  have  to  take  some  stock  in  him- 
self and  learn  somehow  to  make  a  practical  use 
of  his  own  energies. 

The  other  young  man  had  a  different  instinct 
altogether.     It  was  not,  perhaps,  that  he  had  fully 

reasoned  it  out,  but  he  had  by  nature  a  higher 

1  r.  •  1    •       1  •  11         1  •     ii       ^^^  man 

spirit,  a  httle  more  faith  m  this  world  and  m  the  ^^^^  ^.^_ 

universe  at  large,  and  altogether  a  better  percep-  vested  in 

„     ,  .  <•   i-p         TT  •      1    .       1      himself 

tion  of  the  meaning  ot  hie.     He  aspired  to  do 

things,  but  even  more,  he  longed  to  know  and  to 
be.  The  sole  use  of  his  little  patrimony  seemed  to 
him  to  be  the  launching  of  a  man.  He  believed 
in  education  and  he  was  willing  to  invest  in  him- 
self. This  particular  young  man  had  at  once  a 
strong  taste  for  the  natural  sciences  and  a  sym- 
pathetic and  humanitarian  turn  of  mind.  He 
went  to  college,  threw  himself  with  enthusiasm 
into  his  work,  determined  toward  the  end  of  his  His 
college  course  to  study  medicine,  and  also  resolved   prepara- 

to  use  what  remained  of  his  money  without  stint  tion  for 

work 
in  fitting  himself  by  study  and  research  at  home 

and  abroad  for  the  higher  walks  of  his  profes- 
sion. 

I  need  not  dwell  upon  his  early  struggles  or 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I.  difficulties  in  getting  himself  established  in  prac- 
tice. I  merely  wish  to  note  the  fact  that  he  had 
gained  the  lifelong  friendships  and  associations 
of  college  life.  He  had  made  liis  own  those 
priceless  mental  resources  that  are  acquired  by 

Incidental  study,  travel,  and  foreign  residence,  where  a  high 
object  is  ever  in  control  of  conduct  and  the  use 


and  gains 


The 

financial 

aspects 


of  time.  And  he  had  established  the  habitual 
currents  of  thought  that  are  engendered  by  enthu- 
siastic devotion  to  work  in  fields  of  science  where 
new  treasures  may  always  be  found  by  diligent 
and  well-directed  search.  In  the  very  process  of 
training  for  his  Hfe  work  he  had  found  unexpected 
safeguards  and  compensations.  The  financial  side 
of  the  matter  is  of  less  importance,  though  I  may 
add  that  our  professional  brother,  who  did  not 
make  money  his  chief  aim  and  object,  was  never- 
theless in  due  time  earning  twice  as  much  money 
every  week  as  the  prudent  one  could  get  in  a 
whole  year  by  clipping  the  coupons  from  his 
government  bonds. 

This  fragment  of  biography  —  or  this  parable, 
if  you  please  —  leads  on  to  several  other  con- 
siderations that  I  should  like  to  present.  One 
of  these  is  that,  generally  speaking,  it  is  fortunate 
for  a  man  if  he  can  choose  a  pursuit  in  life  in 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  9 

which  the  pecuniary  returns  come  as  an  indirect        chap.  i. 

rather  than  a  direct  result  of  his  eflPorts.     It  was  p^^^^. 

my  pleasure  some  time  ago  to  publish  an  article  where 

written  for  me  by  Mr.  Hezekiah  Butterworth,  en-  ^°^^l 

''  '  JOT  its 

titled  "  The  Old  Age  of  New  England  Authors."  own  sake 
Mr.  Butterworth  pointed  out  the  remarkably 
long  period  through  which  New  England  writers 
have  on  the  average  been  enabled  to  continue 
their  useful  and  valuable  labors,  and  he  attributed 
this  largely  to  the  fact  that  cheerfulness  and 
serenity  promote  long  life  and  the  retention  of  the 
mental  powers  and  faculties  in  old  age.  And 
all  this  is  undoubtedly  true. 

But  it  was  also  true  in  a  very  important  sense  Money 
that  this  class  of  workers  owed  much  of  that  °*  '^^ 
cheerfulness  of  spirit  to  the  fact  that  the  day's  ob/ert '^ 
work   did    not   take   them   into  the   competitive 
struggle  and  clash  of  the  market-place,  nor  compel 
them  to  give  much  anxious  thought  for  the  morrow. 
It  is  not  that  one  should  aspire  to  mere  quiet  or 
aloofness,  in  order  to  cultivate  serenity  and  live 
to  be  ninety  years  old.     My  point  simply  is  that 
there  are  great  compensations  in  any  kind  of  active 
life,  however  intense  and  severe  its  labors  may 
be,  if  only  the  work  itself  absorb  the  mind,  and 
the  pay  come  as  a  secondary  consideration. 


10 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


Benefits 
of  the 
profes- 
sional 
spirit 


Callings 
that  are 
now  profes- 
sionalized 


]My  friend,  a  physician,  striving  to  save  the  Hfe 
of  a  httle  child,  lost  much  sleep,  and  labored 
incessantly;  but  I  do  not  suppose  that  he  gave 
the  smallest  fraction  of  one  minute  to  a  thought 
about  the  amount  of  his  fee.  Now  an  equal 
amount  of  effort,  strain,  and  loss  of  sleep  expended 
upon  a  money-making  transaction,  with  nothing 
in  mind  except  the  dollars  to  be  gained,  would 
have  a  wholly  different  result,  both  immediate 
and  permanent.  It  would  break  a  man  down, 
and  that  ingloriously. 

Clergymen,  professors,  lawyers  of  the  better 
class,  physicians,  engineers,  architects,  and  even 
journalists  and  newspaper  men  who  do  work  of 
a  professional  grade  —  all  persons,  moreover, 
engaged  worthily  and  usefully  in  any  sphere  of 
education,  philanthropy,  or  public  service,  —  and 
in  the  term  "  public  service  "  I  include  not  only 
the  non-official  classes,  but  also  the  better  class  of 
civil  servants  and  also  the  army  and  navy, — the 
people  who  choose  to  spend  their  lives  in  these  and 
kindred  callings  may  be  said  to  form  the  advance 
guards  of  the  social  order  that  is  yet  to  be. 

Taking  them  on  the  average,  they  have  neither 
wealth  nor  poverty,  and  they  give  their  best 
efforts  to  kinds  of  work  which  are  satisfactory  in 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  11 

themselves.     Such  kinds  of  work  to  a  very  large        chap.  i. 

extent  have  attached  to  them  fixed  or  customary   y^g 

livelihoods  that  come  of  themselves  where  intelli-  tendency 
,».,,.,  .        .  ,         ,  ,  towards 

gent  and  taitlitul  service  is  rendered  to  the  com-   non-com- 

munity.  I  am  confident  that  the  tendency  in  petitive 
many  other  fields  of  endeavor  will  be  toward 
some  such  non-competitive  and  permanent  stand- 
ards of  income,  with  comparative  fixity  of  tenure, 
and  opportunity  to  render  devotion  to  the  work 
for  its  own  sake. 

Certainly  I  hope  that  the  young  men  in  our 
colleges  will  be  Utopian  enough  to  believe  in  a  fu- 
ture state  of  economic  society  in  which  each  man 
will  be  more  free  than  now  to  render  service 
to  the  community  according  to  his  special  abilities, 
while  in  return  the  supply  to  all  useful  workers  of  A  hopeful 

their  ordinary  needs  will  become  more  and  more  °/^  .    , , 

desirable 

a  matter  of  easy  assurance,  and  therefore  much  prospect 
more  in  the  background  than  now.  But  even 
with  our  present  organization  of  economic  society, 
the  young  man  will  find  many  compensations 
and  many  advantages  —  other  things  being  equal 
—  in  the  choice  of  a  pursuit  in  life  which  interests 
and  satisfies  in  itself  while  yielding  its  pecuniary 
rewards  indirectly. 

Let  me  refer  again  to  the  question  of  the  rela- 


12 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


The 

warnings 

agairist 

massed 

capital 


Is  the 

poor  man 
without 
chance f 


tive  value  in  this  transitional  period  of  the  well- 
equipped,  highly -trained  man ;  for  we  have  been 
so  gravely  and  so  incessantly  warned  about  the 
crushing  out  of  opportunities  for  young  men 
through  the  growth  of  capitalistic  combinations, 
that  many  of  us  find  it  hard  to  believe  that  we 
are  not  in  some  danger  of  being  folded,  stifled, 
and  crushed  within  the  tentacles  of  the  octopus. 
We  have  been  told  that  the  whole  present  tend- 
ency is  one  that  endangers  not  only  the  position 
of  the  workingman, — that  is  to  say,  the  man  who 
labors  with  his  hands,  whether  skilled  or  unskilled, 
—  but  also  interposes  obstacles  to  the  independ- 
ence and  prosperity  of  merit,  education,  and  high 
training.  For  the  young  man  who  is  not  lucky 
enough  to  inherit  a  fortune,  or  to  have  influence 
and  favor  that  gild  his  prospects,  it  is  said  that 
the  world  offers  a  poor  and  ever-diminishing  op- 
portunity for  earning  a  livelihood  and  achieving 
success ;  in  short,  that  the  situation  grows  rapidly 
worse,  and  that  the  clouds  on  the  horizon  are 
much  darker  than  those  overhead. 

Now  it  is  true  that  we  are  moving  fast  in  the 
most  acutely  transitional  period  of  the  world's 
economic  history.  A  powerful  financier  remarked 
to  me  the  other  day  that  we  had  lived  a  thousand 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  13 

years  since  the  Sherman  anti-trust  law  was  en-        chap.  i. 
acted  in  1890.     The  production  of  wealth  is  on  a  j^eaith 
prodigious  scale,   and  its  private  accumulation,  «"«?  ^<s 
which  has  already  in  a  number  of  instances  given  ^^-^^ 
us  the  man  who  is  a  milhonaire  a  hundred  times 
over,  is  pointing  to  the  possibility  of  the  billionaire 
—  the  man  with  a  thousand  milhons,  —  as  no  soli- 
tary phenomenon  not  very  many  years  hence.    But 

the  man  of  many  millions  is  the  incident,  or  by- 

multi- 

product;    he  is  not  the  fundamental  cause,  nor  millionaire 

is  he  the  chief  or  final  result  of  the  modern  pro-  **  ^  ^^^^ 

by-product 

duction  of  wealth.  His  status  does  not  much 
affect  the  economic  position  of  the  average  man. 
Two  things  have  brought  about  this  recent 
wonderful  outburst  of  economic  production.  One 
is  the  growth  of  human  knowledge  as  respects  the 
laws  and  powers  of  nature,  resulting  in  practical 
achievements  of  science  and  invention.  Many 
of  the   men   representing  this  great  force  were 

brought  together  on  a  social  occasion  some  time  Science 

the  first 

ago  in  New  York.     A  number  of  these  were  men  , 

o  source  of 

with  whose  names,  even,  most  of  us  had  not  been   wealth 
famihar,    yet    they    had    made    astounding    and 
revolutionary    applications    of   science   to   useful 
production  in  mechanical  or  electrical  or  metal- 
lurgical fields,  or  else  through  great  talents  in 


14 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


Coopera- 
tion 
another 
wealth 
agency 


The  new 
ideas 
must  he 
adopted 


organization,  and  in  the  use  of  improved  agencies, 
had  become  the  masters  of  one  or  another  of  the 
great  hnes  of  industry  or  manufacture.  These, 
rather  than  soldiers  or  pohticians,  are  the  typical 
leaders,  the  "  Plutarch's  men  "  of  our  new  era. 

The  second  of  the  two  agencies  or  forces  that 
have  brought  about  this  great  outburst  of  economic 
production  has  been  the  use  of  the  principle  of  co- 
operation. It  gives  us  great  associations  of  capital 
and  of  labor,  hmiting  more  and  more  the  waste- 
fulness and  meager  results  of  competition  on  the 
small  scale,  working  out  production  on  the  large 
scale.  It  employs  every  conceivable  mechanical 
device  to  heighten  the  productivity  of  labor,  — 
unity,  harmony,  and  cooperation  being  the 
watchwords  all   along  the   line. 

Now  these  two  things,  —  the  apphcation  of 
science  and  the  use  of  the  principle  of  human 
cooperation,  —  characteristic  as  they  were  of 
the  closing  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  are 
going  to  be  still  more  characteristic  of  that  period 
in  the  twentieth  century  in  which  the  young 
men  who  are  living  to-day  must  do  their  work. 
They  must  be  prepared,  therefore,  to  accept 
the  new  ideas  and  adjust  themselves  to  the  new 
society. 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  15 

Science,  invention,  skill,  special  training,  union        chap,  i, 
of    effort,    harmonious    cooperation  —  these    are 
to  be  the  keynotes,  certainly,  of  the  next  two  or 
three  decades.     Not  only  is   it  not  in  the  least 
true  that  money,  capital,  mere  dead  material  pos- 
sessions, are  getting  the  better  of  human  flesh 
and  blood,  and  that  mankind  is  coming  under  a  Human 
new  form  of  slavery,  but  exactly  the  opposite  is 
true.     Capital   and   labor,   of  course,   must  con-  -productive 
tinue  in  association  with  one  another,  but  of  the 


two  it  is  labor  —  that  is  to  say,  human  service, 
where  it  shows  the  touch  of  efiiciency  and  knowl- 
edge —  that  constantly  grows  relatively  stronger. 
There  never  was  a  time  when  training  and  skill 
in  the  individual  man  counted  for  so  much,  and 
when  mere  money,  apart  from  training  and  skill, 
counted  for  so  httle. 

When  money  could  earn  ten  per  cent  in  safe 
forms  of  investment,  the  man  with  fifty  thousand 
dollars  could  think  himself  quite  wealthy,  and 
perchance  go  through  life  without  an  occupation. 
But  now,  when  the  standard  of  living  is  advanced 
so  much,  while  rates  of  interest  have  so  greatly 
decUned,  the  same  sort  of  man  —  who  in  order 
to  keep  his  relative  position  needs  tu-ice  his  old- 
time    income  —  finds    that    mere    capital    counts 


capital 


16 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


Modern 

business 

depends 

upon 

talent  and 

skill 


Leadership 
in  develop- 
ment of 
wealth 


for  less  and  less,  while  highly  skilled  personal 
services  count  for  more  and  more. 

Even  in  the  strict  world  of  finance  itself,  it  is 
scarcely  true  any  longer  that  money  breeds  money. 
For  special  skill,  trained  organizing  ability,  broad 
outlook,  and  the  highly  developed  personal 
faculties,  even  with  an  empty  pocket,  may  prove 
a  far  better  start  in  the  race  for  wealth  than  a 
million  dollars  without  those  quahfications.  It 
is  true  that  the  big  combination  has  united  and 
absorbed  many  little  enterprises,  but  the  big 
combination  absolutely  demands  for  its  success  a 
high  order  of  personal  service.  It  is  talent  and 
skill,  rather  than  the  dead  weight  of  united  capital, 
upon  which  the  great  industrial  and  transportation 
systems  must  base  their  chief  hope  of  permanent 
success. 

Where  one  finds  such  enterprises  under  the 
active  direction  of  men  reputed  to  be  multi- 
miUionaires,  one  is  likely  to  discover  that  such 
men  are  no  drones,  but,  on  the  contrary,  are  men 
of  higher  personal  capacity  and  qualification  for 
leadership,  quite  irrespective  of  their  millions, 
than  other  men  who  could  be  found  to  take  their 
places. 

To  reiterate  it,  let  us  grasp  firmly  the  under- 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  17 


CHAP.  I. 


lying  principle  that  in  all  this  recent  evolution, 
at  so  rapid  a  rate,  of  business  and  economic  life, 
knowledge,  skill,  and  character  stand  as  the  best 
and  safest  assets,  and  that  they  count  for  more, 
both  presently  and  prospectively,  than  at  any 
previous  period. 

The  great  business  of  a  college  is  to  help  high- 
minded   and   progressive  youth  to  develop  into   The  new 
manhood  of  discipline,  capacity,  and  power.     And  ^j.  g^^^^^. 
that  being  the  case,  the  college  certainly  never  Hon 
had  so  important  a  work  to  do  before  as  it  has  to 
do  to-day,  for  never  before  was  this  particular 
kind  of  training  so  relatively  advantageous,  and 
never  before  was  it  so  needful  for  young  men  of  all 
degrees  of  fortune  to  be  prepared  to  do  a  man's 
work  in  the  world  on  the  highest  plane  of  their 
own  particular  capacity. 

I  am  aware  that  the  college  and  the  university 

do  not,  from  their  traditional  standpoint  at  least.   Training 

the  whole 
aim  so  much  to  fit  young  men  for  bread-and-  ^^„ 

butter  pursuits ;  but  the  college  and  the  university 
do  stand,  not  merely  for  acquisition,  but  for  the 
high  training  of  the  whole  man  and  the  develop- 
ment of  power.  And  a  man  thus  trained  is  not 
likely  to  prove  in  the  end  a  misfit  in  the  prac- 
tical world. 


18 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


to  a 

■particular 

calling 


It  is  true,  of  course,  that  the  problem  of  per- 
sonal adjustment  is  a  difficult  one  for  a  great 
many  young  men.     Those   older  men   who   re- 
member their  own  perplexities  will  have  ample 
sympathy  for  the  college  junior  or  senior  who  is  a 
well-balanced    man    and    entirely    willing   to    do 
faithful  work  in  the  world,  but  is  not  conscious 
Adjustment  of  an  overpowering  call  to  enter  any  particular 
profession.     Some  young  men  decide  these  ques- 
tions on  broad  principles,  while  others  are  guided 
by  immediate  considerations.     I  have  never  be- 
heved  that  the  successful  choice  and  pursuit  of 
a  calling  should  be  thought  chiefly  a  matter  of 
affinity.     Rather  am  I  inclined  to  think  it  all  a 
matter  of  character;   that  is  to  say,  of  steadfast- 
ness, whole-heartedness,  and  concentration.     Not 
only  is  all  good  work  honorable,  but  it  can  be 
made  sufficiently  interesting. 

In  some  directions,  of  course,  one  must  give 
a  little  heed  to  the  law  of  supply  and  demand. 
Thus  it  would  hardly  pay  for  five  hundred  young 
men  to  rush  violently  into  preparation  for  pro- 
fessorships of  Sanskrit  or  anthropology;  but 
even  such  miscalculations  of  the  market  need  not 
be  fatal,  for  readjustment  is  neither  impossible 
nor  disgraceful.     Thus  the  anthropologist  out  of 


Certain 
cases  of 
misfit 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  19 

a  job  may  in  due  lime  make  fame  and  fortune  as        chap.  i. 
a  criminal  lawyer;    and  the  Sanskrit  man  might 
have  developed   gifts  that   would   fit  him  for  a 
high  place  of  service  in  the  Phihppine  Islands  if^ 
he  did  not  feel  inclined  to  go  to  India  as  a  mis- 
sionary. 

There  is  not   much   reason  to  be  afraid  that 
honest  effort  at  training  one's  self  for  work  in  the  Final 

world    may   prove   to   have   been   misapphed.     I      \    , 
•^     ^  *^^  unlucky 

have  often  heard  men  of  widely  varied  and  more  ventures 
or  less  unlucky  experiences  say  that  in  the  end  all 
their  previous  studies,  efforts,  and  ventures  had 
seemed  to  bear  exactly  upon  the  particular  task 
to  which  they  finally  settled  down  with  success 
and  contentment;    so  that,  in  the  retrospect,  a 
consistent  purpose  appeared  to  run  through  all 
their  earlier  career,  giving  unity  and  cumulative 
effect  and  value  to  what  had  once  seemed  frag- 
mentary, unrelated,  and  quite  unfortunate  efforts. 
Two  things    are  quite  certain  under  the  new 
social  and  economic  order:    first,  that  there  is  to  Double 
be  a  widening  field  of  productive  activity  for  the   Jj^^^q^ 
man  of  liberal  attainments,  and  second,  that  there  culture 
is  to  be  a  vastly  improved  environment  of  oppor- 
tunity for  the  exercise  and  enjoyment  of  liberal 
attainments,  quite  apart  from  their  usefulness  in 


20 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


What  the 
college 
should  do 
for  the 
man 


Mental 
habits 
rather 
than  in- 
formation 


any  direct  sphere  of  productive  employment. 
Both  of  these  reasons  seem  to  me  to  justify  abun- 
dantly almost  any  effort  and  sacrifice  that  a  young 
man  might  make  to  improve  his  mind  by  courses 
of  study,  and  to  obtain  college  and  university 
training  if  he  should  feel  himself  drawn  in  that 
direction. 

In  college  one  ought  to  acquire  the  habit  of 
seeking  the  truth  and  hking  it  for  its  own  sake 
in  a  disinterested  way.  One's  logical  faculties 
ought  to  get  good  training  in  order  that  fallacious 
reasoning  may  easily  be  analyzed  and  disposed 
of.  Scientific  study  should  have  as  its  great 
object  the  training  of  the  powers  of  exact  obser- 
vation and  of  accurate  analysis ;  and  from  begin- 
ning to  end  a  college  course  should  train  the  stu- 
dent in  the  correct  and  exact  use  of  the  English 
language.  As  to  special  departments  of  knowl- 
edge, —  such  as  history,  political  economy,  litera- 
ture, ethics,  and  psychology,  —  certainly  it  is 
important  that  the  student  should  acquire  and 
retain  as  large  a  fund  of  information  as  he  con- 
veniently can ;  but  it  is  still  more  important  that 
he  should  get  his  intellectual  bearings,  acquire 
certain  methods  and  habits  of  thinking,  verify  cer- 
tain standards  and  principles,  and  learn  how  to 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  21 

apply  sound  generalizations  to  current  and  pass-        chap.  i. 
ing  phenomena. 

The  important  thing  is  clearness,  which  means 
exact  thinking,  and  next  in  importance  is  a  certain   Adapta- 
sympathetic  aptitude  in  more  than  one  direction,     .  . 
together  with  some  degree  of  capacity  for  enthu-  trained 
siasm;    that   is   to   say,    some   optimism,   either 
temperamental  or  acquired.     Men  whose  general 
training  has  done  so  much  for  them  can  adapt 
themselves    pretty    readily    to    special    callings, 
learning  the  technique  of  almost  any  profession 
or  industry,  and  earning  a  decent  livelihood  while 
possessing  the  capacity  for  a  rational  use  and 
enjoyment  of  life. 

When  it  comes  to  the  choice  of  a  profession  or 

calling,  the  individual  will  be  guided  by  circum-   About 

stances  that  defy  all  attempts  to  reduce  the  thing        ^     . 

''I  o    profession 

to  rules  or  principles.  It  is  a  mistake  to  disparage 
any  established  profession.  Thus,  it  is  honorable 
to  assist  in  the  administration  of  justice,  in  the 
making  of  laws,  and  in  their  application  to  the 
various  relationships  of  society.  The  legal  pro- 
fession must  therefore  always  have  its  useful  and 
prominent  place.  With  the  harmonizing  and 
unifying  of  business  relationships,  and  the  sub- 
stitution of  the  cooperative  for   the    competitive 


22  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  I.        principle,  it  is  obvious  that  litigation  is  affected; 
,p,  and  in  some  spheres  it  is,  fortunately,  much  re- 

lawyer's        duced.     All  this  will  have  its  effect  upon  the  future 
calling  ^^  ^^^  lawyer's   calling.     To  care  for  the   legal 

business  of  some  individual  corporations  nowa- 
days requires  a  great  number  of  trained  lawyers. 
In  some  New  York  law  offices,  as  in  other 
American  cities,  one  finds  thirty  or  forty,  or  even 
seventy-five  or  a  hundred  fully  trained  members 
The  large  of  the  legal  profession,  —  excellent  lawyers,  of 
legal  firms     ^^^^  ^^^  ^^^^^  he^iYs,  —  most  of  them  college 

graduates ;  a  few,  perhaps,  sharing  in  the  profits 
of  the  firm  and  ranking  as  partners,  but  most 
of  them  employed  at  moderate  salaries  and  work- 
ing as  law  clerks. 

It  happens  to  please  these  men  better  to  have 

their  assured  salaries  and  live  their  lives  in  a  great 

metropolitan  center  with  opportunities  to  indulge 

their  cultivated  private  tastes  —  to  see  pictures,  to 

City  and       hear  music,  to  meet  their  friends  at  the  club  — 

country         ^]^^^  ^^  scatter  into  smaller  cities  and  towns,  hang 
lawyers 

out  their  shingles  on  the  old-fashioned  plan,  and 

elbow  their  way  to  the  front  in  law  practice  and 
in  politics  as  persons  of  at  least  local  importance. 
For  my  part  I  should  probably  prefer  the  inde- 
pendent shingle  and  the  country  town;   but  this 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  23 

is  -a  matter  of  taste  not  to  be  disputed  about,  and  chap.  i. 
the  point  I  wish  to  make  is  that  more  and  more 
the  members  of  the  legal  profession  are  doubt- 
less destined  to  associate  together  in  these  large 
groups  under  circumstances  which  afford  a  good 
deal  of  stabihty  and  satisfaction. 

The   medical   profession   affords   most  inviting   Advance 

opportunities  because  of  its  rapid  progress  upon   ^/  ^^^ 

medical 
really  scientific  hues,  its  wonderful  further  oppor-  profession 

tunities  for  research,  its  rare  opportunities  for 
the  rendering  of  service  to  one's  fellow-men,  and 
above  all  its  growing  authority  and  its  changed 
position  as  respects  public  administration.  Now 
that  population  tends  to  become  urbanized,  and 
millions  of  people  must  Hve  in  close  proximity  to 
one  another,  our  men  of  research  in  the  medical 
profession  have  been  making  a  series  of  most  provi- 
dential discoveries,  which  have  totally  changed 
all  the  conditions  of  life  and  have  quite  reversed 
our  whole  outlook  upon  the  future. 

It  is  to  the  men  of  this  noble  profession  that  Modem 

we  owe  that  greatest  of  all  modern  discoveries ;  T-^  ^'^^  . 
"^  discoveries 

namely,  the  discovery  that  those  very  conditions 
of  life  which  fifty  or  seventy-five  years  ago  seemed 
destined  to  destroy  the  human  race  in  the  civilized 
countries    of    high    industrial    activity,    could  be 


24 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


Scientific 
medicine 
has  trans- 
formed life 
in  cities 


Medicine 
becomes  a 
public 
calling 


turned  into  conditions  for  the  positive  improve- 
ment and  progress  of  the  race.  It  was  this  pro- 
fession that  developed  the  modern  science  of 
sanitary  administration ;  worked  out  and  applied 
the  germ  theory  of  disease;  abolished  epidemics 
of  the  large  and  uncontrolled  sort  such  as  used 
to  ravage  all  great  towns  at  frequent  intervals; 
showed  us  the  relation  of  pure  water,  sufficient 
air  supply,  and  sunlight  to  the  health  of  the  com- 
munity ;  taught  us  to  inspect  food ;  lowered  the 
rate  of  infant  mortality  by  guarding  the  milk 
supply  —  and,  in  short,  set  the  real  standards  for 
the  administration  of  municipal  government. 

More  and  more,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  the 
medical  profession  will  pass  over  from  the  sphere 
of  a  private  to  that  of  a  public  calling.  It  will 
become  one  of  the  most  essential  of  the  protective 
services,  somewhat  as  the  private  watchman 
developed  into  the  public  police  organization ; 
and  the  voluntary  fire  companies  grew  into  the 
great  paid  and  highly  organized  fire  departments 
that  we  see  to-day.  The  more  or  less  voluntary 
and  haphazard  hospital  facilities  have  tended  to 
become  systematized  and  public  in  their  support 
and  character.  The  administration  of  relief  and 
charity  in  modern  countries  has  passed  over  in  the 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  25 

main  from  the  private  and  voluntary  agencies  to        chap,  i, 
the  sphere  of  a  necessary  and  thoroughly  organized   jj^^ 

public  function.     And   that  greatest  of  all  pro-  private 

11.  1  .    .  n   pursuits 

tective  services  —  the  education  and  training  of  gj^^^^g 

the   children   of   the   people   for   their   places   as  '^'^^^  public 

fttTiCttOTlS 

citizens  of  the  state,  members  of  general  society, 
and  producers  in  the  economic  sense  —  has  in 
the  course  of  time  everywhere  come  to  be  recog- 
nized as  the  very  foremost  of  all  the  functions  of 
the  community  or  the  state. 

In  a  somewhat  similar  sense,  then,  we  may 
safely  predict  a  larger  and  larger  proportion  of 
the  men  trained  for  the  practice  of  medicine 
will  become  public  servants  —  administering  sani- 
tary systems ;    looking  after  the  physical  develop-   The  doctor 

ment  of  the  children  in  schools ;    caring:  for  the  "1"" 

°  official 

health  of  workmen  in  factories ;  ministering  to  the  person 
sick  in  hospitals  and  institutions;  serving  special 
classes  like  railroad  men,  sailors,  or  students, 
and  specializing  for  the  general  care  of  the  com- 
munity in  a  way  analogous  to  that  of  the  official 
doctors  who  now  enforce  vaccination,  or  the 
United  States  marine  hospital  service.  I  had 
not  meant  to  say  so  much  about  the  future  of  a 
particular  profession,  and  I  have  said  this  only 
as  illustrative  of  certain  tendencies  which  I  believe 


26 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


Is  money 
an  indis- 
pensable 
motive  ? 


The  power 
of  other 
incentives 


will  affect  the  economic  status  of  workers  in  a 
good  many  callings. 

At  this  point  I  should  like  to  say  with  as  much 
stress  as  possible,  apropos  of  the  new  society 
that  is  to  be  evolved,  that  money-getting  under 
competitive  conditions  is  by  no  means  the  indis- 
pensable motive  power  that  impels  men  to  their 
best  activity.  And  there  is  reason  enough  to  think 
that  it  may  safely  be  allowed  a  less  important 
place.  That  is  to  say,  human  society  will  by  no 
means  stagnate  when  men  are  not  driven  to  make 
exertion  chiefly  through  fear  of  poverty. 

I  aflSrm,  without  the  slightest  doubt  or  hesita- 
tion, that  in  many  lines  of  activity  affecting  the 
community  at  large  it  is  possible  to  secure  as 
high  a  degree  of  efficiency  in  non-competitive 
and  public  service  as  in  service  under  the  spur 
of  competitive  struggle  and  personal  ambition. 
It  is  a  great  mistake  to  undervalue  men's  motives. 
Money  getting  is  only  one  of  many  springs  of 
human  action ;  and  for  my  part  I  have  long  since 
become  convinced  that  the  sense  of  public  respon- 
sibility brings  out  high  qualities  in  men  that 
might  in  those  same  individuals  have  lain  dor- 
mant in  strictly  private  occupations. 

A  large  part  of  the  progress  of  our  times,  even 


/ 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  27 

in  the  fields  of  wealth  production,  has  been  due        chap.  i. 
to  research  and  study  by  men  who  were  actuated    Teaching 
not  in  the  least  degree  by  the   motive  of  gain,    os  the 
But  the  greatest  example  of  all  is  afforded  by  profession 
what  is  now  the  foremost  of  all  our  professions, 
namely,    the    profession    of   teaching.     Here    we 
find    scores    of   thousands    of    men    and    women 
rendering    noble,    unselfish,     and     indispensable 
service  to  the  community  on  the  basis  of  fixed, 
moderate  stipends,  removed  almost  wholly  from 
the  competitive  sphere  of  activity,  and  inspired 
to  diligence  and  efficiency  in  their  work  by  a  sense 
of  duty  and  responsibility. 

To  them  it  belongs  in  this  new  period  to  train  A  public- 
the  rising  generation  to  right  views  of  fife  and  *^!.7 " 
citizenship,  that  is  to  say,  to  develop  the  intelli- 
gent, cooperative  man  of  the  future,  as  against 
the  competitive  man  of  the  past.  The  selfishness 
of  the  competitive  man  has  grown  principally 
out  of  fear,  and  his  sense  of  living  in  a  world 
whose  motto  was  "every  man  for  himself."  The 
work  at  hand  is  the  training  of  the  man  who  can 
afford  to  believe  that  what  helps  one  helps  all, 
and  that  universal  intelligence  means  universal 
emancipation. 

Right-minded  men  and  women,  therefore,  who 


28 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


Room  in 
technical 
professions 


Salaried 
places  in 
business 


fit  themselves  for  the  work  of  teaching,  and 
who  appreciate  its  relation  to  the  demands  of 
citizenship  in  an  economic  society,  may  well  feel 
content  in  the  thought  that  they  have  chosen  a 
noble  calling  in  which  they  can  serve  their  country 
and  their  generation  and  find  many  incidental 
rewards  and  compensations  as  they  go  along. 

As  for  other  professions  and  callings  —  such 
is  the  trend  of  our  industrial  life  that  it  would 
seem  likely  that  it  could  make  room  for  almost 
as  many  engineers,  electricians,  and  men  of 
technological  training  as  are  likely  to  present 
themselves.  In  the  higher  walks  of  what  is  com- 
monly called  business  —  banking,  mercantile  en- 
terprise, transportation,  general  manufacture,  and 
the  various  branches  of  trade  and  commerce  — 
doubtless  a  greatly  increased  proportion  of  young 
men  must  expect  to  work  on  salaries  in  large 
organizations.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  men 
who  are  engaged  in  the  business  of  railroading 
are  destined  to  be  just  as  well  off,  with  the 
amalgamation  of  the  vast  network  of  American 
railways  into  several  comprehensive  systems 
under  united  control,  as  they  were  when,  not  so 
many  years  ago,  we  had  a  vastly  larger  number  of 
separate  railway  companies,  each  with  its  com- 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  29 

plement  of  officers,  engaged  a  part  of  the  time  in        chap.  i. 

reckless  rate-cutting,  a  part  of  the  time  in  extorting   yi^^  future 

high  rates  on  the  principle  of  "  all  the  traffic  would  /«^  ''a^^- 

bear,    and  the  rest  ot  the  time  in  secret  rebating. 

The    newer   method   tends   to   make    railroading 

more  scientific,  gives  it  a  better  opportunity  to 

serve   the   traveling   and    producing   community, 

and   affords   a   more   attractive   calling  for   real 

merit  and  character. 

As  to  the   amalgamation   of  commercial   and 

industrial  enterprises,  the  rapidity  of  the  process 

has    doubtless    caused    a   great    deal    of   distress    Temporary 

through  changed  methods  and  the  displacement  "^''*''*^^* 

\  .  due  to 

of  men.     But  if  one  or  two  traveling  salesmen  readjust- 

can  really  do  all  the  business  that  thirty  or  forty  ^^"'^ 
were  struggling  and  competing  for  under  the  old 
system,  the  community  as  a  whole  must  certainly 
reap  the  benefit  when  the  necessary  readjust- 
ments have  been  made ;  and  what  is  good  for  the 
community  as  a  whole  will  not  fail  to  be  good 
also  for  most  of  the  individuals  concerned. 

Let  us  not  forget  that  the  intelligent  man  of  Science 

the  future  is  also  to  find  a  great  outlet  for  his  ^" '/^ 

"  revival  of 

energies  in  the  old  and  dignified  calling  of  agri-  farming 
culture.     The  application  of  science  and  inven- 
tion to  the   business   of  farming  is   destined   to 


30 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


Better- 
ments of 
life  in  the 
country 


work  changes  which  we  are  only  beginning  to  sus- 
pect. Scientific  agriculture  affords  a  field  of 
study  of  almost  infinite  variety,  and  promises 
safe,  if  not  glittering,  financial  returns.  Along 
with  the  complete  transformation  of  the  business 
of  farming  under  the  new  applications  of  science 
and  invention  is  destined  to  come  about  the 
rehabilitation  of  country  life  through  the  intelli- 
gent cultivation  of  cooperative  methods.  Greatly 
improved  highways,  the  electric  trolley  for  freight 
as  well  as  passengers,  the  substitution  to  some 
extent  of  motor  traction  for  horses  in  hauling 
and  farm  work,  the  extension  of  the  free  postal  de- 
livery, the  universality  of  the  telephone,  the  central- 
ization and  great  improvement  of  schools  through 
the  facilities  ofl^ered  by  better  roads  and  through 
organized  methods  for  carrying  the  children 
back  and  forth,  the  multiplication  of  cooperative 
cheese  factories  and  creameries,  and  common 
action  in  various  other  directions  having  to  do 
with  purchase  and  sale,  the  performance  of  heavy 
work  by  machinery,  and  the  utilization  of  raw 
Methods  of  products  by  the  establishment  of  additional 
primary  industries  analogous  to  the  butter  and 
cheese  factories,  the  multiplication  of  traveling 
libraries  and  the  improvement  of  social  facilities  — 


rural 
progress 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  31 

in  all  these  and  various  other  ways  country  hfe        chap.  i. 
can  and  will  be  greatly  revived ;  and  the  position 
of  the  intelHgent  and  well-educated  farmer  may 
well  be  one  of  dignity,  prosperity,  and  content- 
ment. 

After    all,    the    object    of    that    better    society  Gradual 

toward  which  the  civilized  world  is  moving  is  to  ^^"■^(^^P(^- 

tionfrom 
reach  such  a  point  of  abundance  in  production,   the 

and  of  fairness  in  distribution,  that  the  man  may  ^<^onomic 

motive 
be  much  more  than  a  mere  factor  in  the  economic 

process.  There  was  much  basis  in  fact  for  the 
old  conception  of  the  orthodox  economists,  accord- 
ing to  which  man  was  almost  wholly  concerned 
with  economic  functions,  hving  his  life  under  the 
hard-and-fast  sway  of  the  law  of  supply  and 
demand.  But  we  are  destined  to  outhve  that 
conception  and  that  status.  Consciously  or 
unconsciously,  blindly  or  with  open  eyes,  we  are 
working  out  our  racial  emancipation  from  that 
grind  of  hopeless  toil  which  has  been  entitled  the 
primeval  curse. 

In    hopeful    activity    and    useful    occupation   The  value 
there  must,  indeed,  always   be    exceeding    great  "/^^^^"''^ 
reward.     But  to  have  achieved  a  certain  decree 
of  leisure  lies  at  the  very  essence  of  progress  in 
civilization.     Herein  hes  the  value  of  the  periodic 


32  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  I.  day  of  rest,  the  occasional  holiday  or  half  holiday, 
and,  above  all,  the  gradual  shortening  of  the  daily 
hours  of  labor  for  all  classes  of  workers;  pro- 
vided, however,  that  the  shortening  of  hours  is 
attended  by  such  training  and  education,  and  is 
surrounded   by   such   opportunities,   that   leisure 

from  toil  is  likely  to  be  filled  with  pleasing  and 
Shortening 
the  hours      improving    activities.     Under    certain    phases    of 

of  toil  i^j^g  q](]  competitive  struggle  for  existence  a  man's 

toil  for  livelihood  often  occupied  fourteen  or 
sixteen,  or  even  eighteen  hours  out  of  the  twenty- 
four,  and  it  meant  the  whole  of  life. 

But  where  men  work  only  eight  or  nine  hours, 
with  a  reasonable  prospect  that  a  few  years  hence 
they  will  work  only  six  or  seven,  the  whole  situa- 
tion changes.  It  becomes  relatively  less  vital 
that  they  should  struggle  absorbingly  to  rise 
from  the  status  of  journeyman  to  master,  and 
from  that  of  master  to  the  man  able  to  retire  from 
a  business  that  always  kept  him  absorbed  and 
breathless,  only  to  find  himself  unfit  for  anything 
except   to    accumulate    adipose    and    to   indulge 

Compensa-  somnolence  in  a  stupid  and  reactionary  old  age. 

tion  in  j^   ^j^g   better  time   to   come,   when   work  for 

the  use  of 

free  time      ordinary  workers  of  reasonable  intelligence  shall 

have  taken  on  the  cooperative  as  distinguished 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  33 

from  the  competitive  aspect,  and  when  the  tri-  chap.  i. 
umphs  of  invention  and  of  highly  organized  pro- 
duction and  distribution  shall  further  have 
shortened  the  hours  of  labor,  the  son  of  toil  may 
find  ample  compensation,  as  he  goes  along,  in  his 
personal  freedom,  in  his  ownership  of  himself. 
He  may  find  himself  in  possession  of  time  enough 
to  cultivate  a  flower  garden,  if  that  is  what  he  The  chance 
likes;  to  acquire  languages  and  study  compara- 
tive literature,  if  such  be  his  bent ;  to  experiment 
in  a  laboratory ;  to  cultivate  the  art  of  music,  or, 
in  short,  to  offset  the  monotony  of  his  necessary 
vocation  by  the  variety  and  charm  of  his  avo- 
cations. 

Surely  no  one  will  say  that  this  is  a  fanciful  or  a  forecast 
visionary  forecast,  inasmuch  as  it  is  highly  obvious   ^  ^^""^  ^ 
that  in  very  many  fields  of  human  endeavor  that  realization 
type  of  man  has  already  made  his  appearance. 
The  world  is  steadily  moving  toward  the  position 
in  which  the  individual  is  to  contribute  faithfully 
and  duly  his  quota  of  productive  or  protective 
social  effort,  and  to  receive  in  return  a  modest,  cer- 
tain, not  greatly  variable  stipend.      He  will  adjust 
his  needs  and  his  expenses  to  his  income,  guard 
the    future     by    insurance     or    some     analogous 
method,  and   find   margin  of  leisure  anil  oppor- 

D 


34 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


As  in 
German 
and  Eng- 
lish civil 
services 


And  in 
business 
corpora- 
tions 


tunity  sufficient  to  give  large  play  to  individual 
tastes  and  preferences.  And  thus  he  will  coun- 
teract any  stagnating  or  deteriorating  effects  that 
might  come  from  wearing  the  harness  of  his 
regular  craft  or  calling  day  by  day. 

One  might  illustrate  by  comment  upon  the 
small-salaried,  well-educated  civil-service  officials 
of  Germany,  who  as  a  class  are  remarkably  con- 
tented, happy,  and  useful;  or  the  military  and 
naval  officers  of  all  countries  in  times  of  peace; 
or  the  class  to  whom  I  have  already  referred, 
engaged  in  this  and  other  countries  in  the  work 
of  education;  or  the  better  class  of  trained  and 
steadily  employed  men  in  the  service  of  great 
railway,  banking,  insurance,  and  other  corpora- 
tions; or  the  class  of  highly  instructed  men  em- 
ployed in  many  branches  of  the  public  service  in 
England,  who  render  a  fair  equivalent  for  the 
salaries  they  obtain,  and  yet  achieve  leisure 
enough,  many  of  them,  to  attain  a  fair  place  in 
literature  and  science,  or  otherwise  to  gratify  their 
individual  tastes.  There  are  few  such  sources  of 
satisfaction  as  to  feel  with  the  poet  that  one's 
mind  is  his  kingdom,  provided  only  that  one  has 
some  little  leisure  in  which  to  occupy  the 
throne. 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  35 

Just  as  the  ultimate  goal  in  a  democracy  is  not        chap.  i. 
strife    and    discord,    but    political    harmony    and   Harmony 

concord,  even  so  in  the  economic  life  of  the  com-  ^^  ^^^ 

economic 
munity,  the  better  hopes   reach  far  beyond  the  g^^i 

wastefulness  and  strife  of  the  old  competitive 
system  and  demand  the  substitution  for  it  of 
cooperative  methods  and  scientific  organization. 
From  this  new  period  of  unified  effort  upon  which 
we  are  entering  let  no  man  think  there  can  be  any 
return  to  the  competitive  system  as  it  has  existed 
heretofore.  These  are  movements  too  funda- 
mental to  be  vitally  affected  by  hampering  statutes 
or  decisions  of  courts.  Just  as  trades  unionism  There  can 
could  never  be  destroyed  by  English  conspiracy  ^^^^^^^  ^^ 

laws  or  by  the  American  device  of  injunctions,   competitive 

,  .„  .  „  .       .  ,    conditions 

even  so  the  umiymg  or  transportation  mterests  and 

the  scientific  organization  of  industry  will  make 
steady  progress,  not  to  defy  Sherman  Acts  and 
judicial  mandates,  but  to  obey  those  more  funda- 
mental laws  and  principles  that  have  come  to 
operate  with  a  momentum  now  practically  irre- 
sistible. 

We  are  certainly  then  to  have  this  new,  close   Control 

orifanization  of  industry.     We  cannot  make  water    -^        , 

*=>  •'  massed 

run  uphill,  but  we  can  often  do  something  to  fix  economic 
its  channel  and  direct  its  course,  and  divert  what 


36 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I, 


Three 
possible 
methods  ■ 


(1)    con- 
centration 
in  a  few 
hands 


(2)  control 
by  the 
state 


(3)  by  dif- 
fusion  of 
ownership 


might  have  been  the  harmfulness  of  the  flood  to 
useful  and  fructifying  ends.  We  may  be  sure, 
then,  that  in  our  new  economic  society  this  ques- 
tion of  control  will  be  of  vital  importance,  and  that 
it  will  be  settled  in  the  light  of  experience,  on  the 
basis  of  efficiency  and  of  the  greatest  good  to  the 
greatest  number. 

Three  methods  of  future  control  are  readily 
conceivable.  One  method  is  that  of  control  by 
individuals  or  by  syndicates  composed  of  com- 
paratively few  men,  whose  fortunes  may  be  told 
in  hundreds  or  in  thousands  of  millions.  The 
second  method  is  that  of  the  radical  enlargement 
of  the  functions  of  the  political  community,  so 
that  the  people  themselves,  organized  as  the  city, 
the  state,  the  nation,  may  assume  control,  one 
after  another,  of  the  great  common  services  of 
supply,  and  the  great  businesses  and  industries. 
The  third  method  is  that  of  the  gradual  distribu- 
tion of  the  shares  of  stock  of  industrial  corpora- 
tions among  the  workers  themselves  and  the 
people  at  large,  until  in  one  service  or  industry 
after  another  there  shall  have  come  into  being 
something  like  a  cooperative  system,  managed  on 
representative  principles,  analogous  in  some  meas- 
ure to  the  carrying  on  of  our  political  institutions. 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  37 

I  have  the  impression  that  we  may  see  some-        chap.  i. 

thing  in  this  country  of  all  three  of  these  methods    j^j^^g  ^j^j.^^ 

operating  side  by  side.     Doubtless  in  some  large   methods 

VI  ay 
industries  we  shall  for  a  good  while  witness  control   operate 

concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a  few  individuals,    together 

They  will  hold  this  control,  however,  subject  to 

the    inevitable    laws    of    diminishing    returns    on 

capital  and  of  an  ever-improving  status  for  the 

intelligent   employee.     I   may   be   wrong   in   my 

observations    and    impressions,    but    there    has 

seemed  to  me  to  be  a  marked  tendency  toward 

the  gradual  elimination  from  industrial  control  of 

the  capitalist  as  such,   and   the  substitution  for    The  ad- 

him  of  the  skillful  administrator.     But  the  ad-  , 

supersed- 

ministrator  —  whether  of  the  great  railway  sys-   ing  the 
tems,   hke   M.  de  Witte,   formerly   head    of   the       '^ 
Russian  system,  or  Mr.  J.  J.  Hill,  or  of  a  great 
manufacturing    enterprise  —  is    produced   in    the 
business  itself,  and  comes  to  the  front  through 
force  of  merit  and  ability. 

Recognizing    this    fact,    the    great    capitalists   Corpora- 

who  wish  their  sons  to  maintain  any  actual  hold   ^, 

*'  the  mercy 

upon  the  conduct  of  business  see  the  necessity  of  the 
of  having  them  taught  in  a  practical  way,  often  ^" 
beginning  at  the  very  bottom  of  the  ladder.     The 
larger  the  transportation  and  industrial  corpora- 


38 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


Efficient 
men 
brought 
to  the 
front 


Better 
relations 
of  labor 
and 
capital 


tions  become,  the  more  they  are  at  the  mercy  of 
the  pubhc  —  of  the  state,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
of  their  employees  on  the  other.  The  influence  of 
the  state  will  be  to  make  for  publicity  and  for 
methods  that  tend  to  steadiness,  and  through 
taxation  as  one  method,  and  direct  or  indirect 
regulation  of  rates  and  prices  as  another  method, 
the  community  will  check  the  accumulation  of 
undue  or  monopoly  profits.  On  the  other  side, 
the  employees  will  insist  upon  gradual  ameliora- 
tion of  their  own  status.  Such  conditions  will  of 
necessity  bring  efficient  men  to  the  front  in  the 
organization  of  labor,  and  not  less  so,  certainly, 
in  the  administration  of  the  business  from  the 
standpoint  of  capital. 

And  with  improved  intelligence  on  both  sides 
there  will  come  better  and  closer  understandings, 
with  the  prospect  that  periodic  agreements  upon 
wage  scales  and  conditions  aff'ecting  labor  will 
come  into  common  use,  and  that  not  only  will 
mutual  respect  and  confidence  be  greatly  en- 
hanced, but  the  opportunity  of  the  individual 
workman  to  advance  through  efficiency  and  to 
pass  from  the  inferior  to  the  superior  side  of 
the  situation  will  be  made  easier. 

In  France,  where  the  habit  of  saving  is  very 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  39 

highly  developed,  and  where  capitalistic  control        chap.  i. 

is  not  quite  so  firmly  centered  in  the  hands  of  Diffusion 

particular    individuals    as    in    England    and    the  of  owner- 

United  States,  the  tendency  is  toward  the  wide   fiance 

distribution  of  the  share  capital  of  railways  and 

of  other  enterprises  among  the  people  who  belong 

to  the  great  working  class,   particularly  to  the 

class  of  skilled  and  intelligent  workers.     In  Ger-   Public 

many,  on  the  other  hand,  the  tendency  is  rather    . 

strongly  in  the  direction  of  the  increase  of  the   Germany 

direct    industrial    functions    of   the    municipality 

or    the    higher   government  —  the    employees    of 

railways,  telephones,  and  the  like  assuming  the 

status    of    civil    servants    and    public    employees 

like  our  letter-carriers. 

Within  the  sphere  of  the  municipality  itself  this  Same 
tendency  toward  increase  of  function,  and  there-    ^^ ^'^y  h 
fore  toward  the  absorption  of  an  increasing  pro-  cities 
portion  of  the  community  into  direct  public  serv- 
ice, is  particularly  strong  in  the  cities  of  England 
and  Scotland,  in  nearly  all  of  which  there  is  on 
foot  at  the  present  time  a  movement  for  the  direct 
ownership   and   operation   of   local   transit   lines. 
This  movement  follows  upon   longer  experience 
in  operating  gas  and  electric  lighting,  as  well  as 
water   supphes;     and    upon    the    experiment    of 


40 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


With 
efficient 
govern- 
ment 
either 
policy 
would 
work 


Present 
functions 
must  find 
better 
perform- 
ance 


direct  employment  as  opposed  to  the  contract 
system  in  the  making  of  streets  and  sewers,  and 
various  other  kinds  of  pubhc  work. 

I  do  not  know  at  all  what  lines  of  public  policy 
in  these  matters  we  shall  have  preferred  to  adopt 
in  the  course  of  the  average  period  of  active  life 
and  work  of  young  men  now  concerned.  But 
of  one  thing  I  am  entirely  certain,  and  that  is  that 
there  has  never  been  such  a  hopeful  outlook  for 
the  sane  and  wise  dominance  of  the  best  average 
intelligence.  I  would  have  a  government  so 
efficient,  whether  of  the  city  or  the  state,  that  it 
should  become  a  matter  of  comparative  indiffer- 
ence whether  the  government  carried  on  a  serv- 
ice directly  for  the  people  as  a  cooperative  com- 
munity, or  whether  it  secured  the  interests  of  the 
citizens  through  the  proper  regulation  and  control 
of  a  private  corporation  whose  shares  of  stock 
should  themselves  be  widely  distributed. 

In  any  case  we  shall  need  very  strong,  capable 
governments,  because  the  increasing  intelligence 
and  refinement  of  the  community  will  demand 
that  those  things  now  undertaken  by  the  govern- 
ment shall  be  managed  with  a  far  higher  degree 
of  skill  and  success  than  heretofore.  The  prepa- 
ration for  this  high  average  improvement  in  the 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  41 

tone  and  quality  of  government,  whether  local  chap.  i. 
or  general,  must  simply  come  about,  as  one 
readily  sees  on  reflection,  with  the  improvement 
in  the  intelligence  and  moral  sense  of  our  citizen- 
ship at  large  —  along  with  the  growth  of  a  more 
acute  sense  of  the  practical  value  of  the  commu- 
nity's efforts  to  the  individual  citizen. 

More,  rather  than  less,  shall  we  rely  henceforth   We  must 
on  the  principle  of  democracy ;   and  more,  rather       -^    . 

than  less,  shall  we  be  obliged  to  adopt  the  policy  ciple  of 

.,,.  .,  .«.,  li?        democracy 

of  leveling  up  the  many,  even  it  it  were  only  tor 

the  benefit  of  the  few.     Henceforth  the  rich  man 

and  the  talented  man,  quite  as  much  as  the  poor 

man  and  the  man  of  ordinary  parts,  are  to  find 

their  security  and  their  prosperity  in  a  community 

so  ordered  as  to  make  for  the  general  comfort  and 

the  general  welfare. 

The  community  as  a  whole  will  become  the   Growing 

repository  of  such  priceless  and  varied  wealth,  ^y^^^^ 

the  administrator  of  such  vast  resources,  the  pro-  community 

itself 
vider  of  so  many  things  desirable  and  useful  — 

that  its  services  will  call  for  and  receive  the  best 
talent ;  and  no  one  will  be  so  sufficient  unto  him- 
self that  he  can  afford  to  be  indifferent  to  the  suc- 
cess of  the  public  administration. 

It  is  a  very  great  thing  to  have  attained  to  some 


42  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  I.        sort  of  clear  conception  of  the  possibilities  of  the 
yi^g  ideal  city  of  the  future.     Already  that  ideal  city  is 

emergence     emerging.     Its  elements  to  a  large  extent  already 

of  the  ideal  .  •  ^\  u     e 

^^^  exist,  some  in  one  place,  some  in  another,  all  ot 

them  capable  of  transplantation  and  entirely 
compatible  with  one  another.  Thus  the  city 
with  an  ideal  water  supply  is  not  debarred  from 
possessing  ideal  schools  and  public  libraries. 
The  city  that  has  perfectly  paved  and  well- 
cleaned  streets  may  have  everything  else  that 
makes  for  health,  attractiveness,  safety,  and 
pleasure  in  the  public  appointments.  No  private 
schools  can  possibly  be  as  good  as  the  free  public 
schools  of  the  United  States  are  destined  to  become 
in  the  due  course  of  time.  No  private  museums 
or  galleries  of  art,  no  collections  of  scientific 
What  it  objects,  no  libraries,  no  monumental  art  or 
vide  for  all  architecture  could  possibly,  in  private  hands, 
attain  such  importance  as  that  which  will  belong 
freely  to  all  the  people  in  common.  No  private 
grounds  could  equal  our  public  parks  as  they 
are  destined  to  develop.  No  individual  could 
conceivably  so  surround  himself  with  safeguards 
for  the  health  of  himself  or  his  family  as  the  com- 
munity will  supply  to  him  and  to  its  humblest 
citizen  alike. 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  43 

Thus  the  evolution  of  the  new  order  of  things  chap.  i. 
is  to  give  us  some  approximation  toward  the  ideal 
of  the  modern  city  with  its  low  death  rate,  its 
admirable  facilities  for  education,  recreation, 
and  physical  culture;  its  improved  industrial 
conditions;  its  well-guarded  housing  arrange- 
ments ;  its  clean  streets  —  free  from  dust  and 
largely  free  from  noise ;  its  pure  atmosphere  — 
with  smoke  abolished ;  its  playgrounds ;  its  public 
baths,  and  its  varied  opportunities  for  the  use 
of  leisure. 

While  the  present  tendency  in  the  re-grouping  An  equal- 
of  population,  under  which  the  large  towns  are  \ly^^il\. 
growing,  is  doubtless  to  continue  for  some  time   and  city 

f*f)Ttd'ht,'t077iS 

to  come,  the  contrast  between  city  and  country 
life  will  become  less  marked ;  for  with  the  readier 
access  of  the  children  of  the  towns  to  the  out-of- 
door  and  open  life  of  the  country,  there  will  also 
come  about  a  great  movement  for  supplying  the 
country  itself  with  some  of  the  advantages  of  the 
town  through  the  cooperative  agencies  to  which 
I  have  alluded.  The  populous  community  of  the 
future,  even  more  than  of  the  past,  must  stand 
firmly  by  the  principle  of  democracy.  One  of 
the  chief  objects  must  be  to  equalize  conditions, 
to  lift  men  up  in  the  scale  of  being,  and  to  fit  the 


44 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


The 

reality  of 
social 
progress 


What  has 
already 
been 
achieved 


oncoming  generation  in  the  best  possible  way  for 
responsible  citizenship. 

When  one  compares  the  conditions  of  life  in  the 
great  towns  as  they  commonly  were  twenty-five 
years  ago  and  as  they  are  at  their  worst  to-day, 
with  those  conditions  that  we  now  see  can  be 
feasibly  supplied  to  all,  we  get  a  new  sense  of  the 
reality  of  social  progress.  For  it  is  nowadays 
regarded,  not  as  a  wild  dream,  but  as  a  fairly 
sober  and  reasonable  proposition,  to  demand 
that  the  poor  man  may  at  least  live  in  a  model 
tenement,  on  an  asphalted  street,  with  pure  air 
to  breathe  and  with  pure  water  to  drink;  that 
he  may  be  surrounded  by  marvelous  safeguards 
in  the  way  of  health  protection  and  police  and 
fire  protection;  that  he  may  send  his  children  to 
the  very  best  of  schools;  that  in  the  evening  he 
may  read  the  best  of  books  from  the  free  public 
libraries,  by  gas  or  electric  light  cheaply  furnished ; 
that  he  may  hear  the  best  lectures  without  price ; 
may  attend  excellent  free  concerts,  visit  beautiful 
parks,  public  museums,  and  galleries  of  art,  look 
upon  noble  architecture  and  monumental  statues 
with  a  feeling  of  pride  and  a  sense  of  common 
possession ;  that  he  may  ride  swiftly  and  luxuri- 
ously in  public  vehicles  at  small  price,  and  that 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  45 

he  may  be  safeguarded  against  the  worst  dangers        chap.  i. 

of  illness  or  old  age  through  one  form  or  another 

of  benefit  funds  or  social  insurance. 

The  community  which  professes  to  do  all  this    The  poor 

for  its  members  is  at  once  minimizing  the  dis-   ^°'^  ^  T^^ 

*^  acquisi- 

advantages   of  the   laboring   man   and   lessening  tions 

the  peculiar  advantages  of  wealth.     For  the  poor 

man,  too,  under  the  eight-hour  system,  is  to  have 

his   leisure,   his  books,   his   music,   his   pictures, 

his  parks,  his  opportunities  of  quick  travel,  his 

swimming  bath,  his  gymnasium,  his  golf  course, 

and  a  hundred  advantages  that  were  wholly  out 

of  reach   even   of  the   well-to-do   man   living  in 

towns  forty  or  fifty  years  ago. 

And  if  it  is  reasonable  to  hope  for  so  much    The 

for  the  intelligent  workingman  —  as  the  new  social  ^'^'P^f^l 

outlook 

order  develops  and  the  ideals  toward  which  for  the 
society  is  working  come  into  fuller  realization  —  ^^f^^^°^ 
surely  the  man  of  higher  education,  more  complete 
training,  or  more  perfect  moral,  mental,  and 
physical  self-control  is  also  to  find  things  better 
rather  than  worse  for  himself.  Least  of  all  should 
he  fear  lest  there  be  somehow  a  diminished  oppor- 
tunity for  him  to  play  some  fitting  part  in  the 
world's  activity,  and  to  reap  some  fitting  reward. 
The    margin    of   individual    risk   is   destined    to 


man 


46 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


The 
general 

trend  of 
progress 


diminish.  I  think  it  true,  also,  that  the  margin  of 
opportunity  for  obtaining  very  exceptional  advan- 
tage over  one's  fellows  in  some  particular  direc- 
tions is  also  to  be  diminished.  But  there  will 
be  corresponding  increase  in  the  opportunity  to 
earn  honorable  renown  by  the  full  devotion  of 
one's  talents  to  the  social  good  in  any  chosen  field. 
I  hold  that  the  general  trend  of  progress  at  the 
present  time  lies  before  us  with  exceptional  clear- 
ness; that  life  offers  rewards  and  opportunities, 
as  never  before,  by  virtue  of  the  new  social  and 
industrial  organization;  and  that  the  outlook  is 
bright  with  hope,  through  the  transformed  en- 
vironment that  the  community  is  providing  for 
the  individual,  and  through  the  widening  field  of 
opportunity,  in  consequence,  that  the  individual 
finds  for  activity  and  service  among  his  fellows. 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 


CHAPTER  II 

PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

Disguise  the  fact  at  times  as  we  may,  the  eco-  "  Busi- 
nomic  Ufe  has  been  the  absorbing  and  dominating  ,  _ 

interest  with  the  American  people  for  many  years  ing  interest 
past,  and  it  bids  fair  to  hold  the  central  place 
for  a  generation  yet  to  come.  There  are  two 
ways  to  deal  with  this  fact,  according  to  our  con- 
ception of  its  meaning.  On  the  one  hand,  we  may 
apologize  for  it,  deprecate  it,  condemn  it,  and 
endeavor  to  combat  it.  On  the  other  hand,  we 
may  accept  it,  fall  heartily  into  line  with  it,  find 
its  rational  and  philosophical  basis,  and  endeavor 
to  make  it  harmonize  with  a  social  progress  not 
altogether  gross,  or  material,  or  worldly. 

There  are  to-day  radically  opposed  theories  as   Theories 

to  the  proper  and  desirable  trend  of  our  economic  "^ 

life.     For  example,  there  is  the  sociahstic  theory ; 

and  this  is  advocated  from  two  wholly  different 

standpoints.     Thus  we  have  the   standpoint   of 

those  who  beheve  our  present  system  of  private 

ownership  and  direction  of  capitahstic  wealth  to 

be  a  failure  beyond  remedy.     Then,  there  is  the 
B  49 


50 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 


The  wor- 
shipers of 
private 
property 


The  cheer- 
ful oppor- 
tunists 


One  great 
point  of 
agreement 


standpoint  of  those  who  take  the  more  cheerful 
view  that  an  evolutionary  process  is  bringing  us, 
along  a  more  or  less  stormy  but  not  very  danger- 
ous path,  to  a  gradual  socialistic  extension  of  the 
economic  functions  of  government. 

Over  against  those  who  belong  to  one  or  the 
other  of  these  socialistic  schools  of  thought  are 
those  who  view  all  such  tendencies  with  alarm, 
and  beheve  that  the  private  ownership  and  ex- 
ploitation of  wealth  lies  at  the  very  corner  stone 
of  our  social  well-being,  and  must  so  remain. 
Yet  again,  there  are  those  who  are  opportunists, 
or  experimentalists,  and  who  are  willing  to  see 
adjustments  and  compromises  from  time  to  time. 
They  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  subscribe  com- 
pletely to  the  doctrines  of  the  socialist,  nor  yet  to 
those  of  the  individualist. 

But  the  thing  I  wish  to  emphasize  is  the  point 
that,  however  much  these  exponents  of  theory  — 
these  advocates  of  one  policy  or  another  —  may 
differ  in  their  views  as  to  the  control  and  direction 
of  wealth,  they  all  agree  about  one  main  proposi- 
tion ;  namely,  that  the  production  and  distribution 
of  wealth  constitute  the  most  absorbing  interest 
and  the  most  dominant  problem  of  our  American 
Ufe  in  this  generation. 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  51 

Now,  I  also  am  of  the  opinion  that  this  is  quite       chap.  ii. 
true,  —  although  I  should  not  hke  to  be  deprived    ^ygalth 

of  the  right  to  explain  why  I  so  beheve  it.     It  is   ««  a  means 

.to  other 
not  for  its  own  sake  that  I  should  regard  wealth   g^^g 

as  the  all-important  thing,  or  the  economic  life 

as  the   dominating  interest.     I  think   of  wealth 

as  a  means  rather  than  as  an  end.     And  I  regard 

the  intense  pressure  of  the  economic  motive,  in 

the  activities  of  our  people,  as  an  evidence  of  the 

coexistence  of  other  motives,  and  as  a  token  of 

the  growth  of  those  wants  and  desires  that  belong 

to  a  higher  civilization  and  a  better  life. 

Young  men  upon  the  threshold  of  active  careers   As  to 

will  find  many  phases  of  American  economic  life         .    ,. 

■^    ^  prejudices 

assuming  the  form  of  public  and  social  problems 
about  which  they  must  have  opinions,  and  with 
reference  to  which  they  must  join  their  fellows 
in  taking  action.  We  ought  at  the  outset,  there- 
fore, to  be  wholly  free  from  certain  prejudices  and 
misapprehensions  about  the  nature  and  desira- 
bility of  wealth.  Such  states  of  mind  have  become 
rather  widespread  in  this  country,  for  reasons 
natural  enough  and  easy  to  understand. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  last  century,  disaffected 
trades-unionists  sometimes  destroyed  machinery 
and  burned  factories.     In  the  effort  to  get  a  fair 


52 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 

The 

hostility 
towards 
capital 


Due  to 

confused 
thinking 


Wealth 
production 
not  to  be 
neglected 


distribution  of  results  from  the  combined  use  of 
capital  and  labor,  there  has  often  come  about 
a  hostility  toward  capital  itself,  which,  of  course, 
as  you  know,  is  based  upon  a  fallacy.  In  like 
manner,  the  control  of  great  masses  of  wealth 
(capitalized  in  the  form  of  railways,  or  industrial 
agencies)  by  a  few  individuals,  or  by  great  cor- 
porations centered  in  a  few  hands,  has  often  been 
unwisely  or  unfairly  exercised.  And  in  the  popu- 
lar mind  there  has  been  some  natural  confusion, 
so  that  indignation  against  the  abuse  of  economic 
power  has  been  directed  against  economic  forces 
in  themselves,  as  if  capital  were  an  evil. 

I  will  not  for  a  moment  suppose  that  any  of 
you  are  in  serious  danger  of  entertaining  a  fallacy 
of  this  sort.  Yet  we  are  all  more  or  less  influenced 
by  popular  prejudice;  and  in  our  righteous 
zeal  for  the  correction  of  economic  evils,  and  the 
more  perfect  distribution  of  wealth  among  the 
people  whose  efforts  go  to  produce  it,  we  may 
be  in  some  danger  of  losing  sight  of  the  fact  that 
wealth  must  exist  before  it  can  be  distributed, 
and  that  the  productive  processes,  as  well  as  the 
distributive,  are  not  to  be  neglected. 

The  real  task,  of  course,  that  presents  itself 
to  each  generation  in  turn,  is  the  bettering  of  its 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  53 

social  life,  so  that  it  may  transmit  to  the  genera-      chap.  ii. 
tion  that  is  to  follow  all  the  heritage  of  good  it  has  y^^^g 
itself  received,  with  some  enrichment  and  addi-  process  of 

tTdTis/ytis— 

tion  thereto.  And  on  this  platform,  in  this  uni- 
versity atmosphere,  at  the  end  of  an  academic 
year,  I  should  indeed  seem  both  obtuse  and  ungra- 
cious if  I  should  ignore  the  fact  that  this  trans- 


sion 


'O' 


mission  of  our  heritage  of  civihzation  might  best 
be  expressed  in  educational  terms.  For  we  have 
received  treasures  of  knowledge,  and  many  up- 
lifting ideals,  which  it  is  one  of  the  chief  duties 
of  the  academic  world  to  preserve  and  to  pass 
on  in  endless  succession. 

But  in  the  earlier  generations,  it  was  the  privi-   Poverty 
lege  only  of  a  very  few  to  enter  the  temple  where  ^"'      ^^ 
the  sacred  fire  of  mental  and  spiritual  enlighten- 
ment was  kept  aUve.     And  this,  let  me  remind 
you,  was  for  the  very  simple  and  sordid  reason 
that  the  world  was  poor. 

Those  were  the  days  of  favored  classes,  when 
a  few  were  rich,  powerful,  and  dominant,  a  few 
were  learned  and  refined,  and  the  great  mass  of 
men  were  in  slavish  subjection  because  of  igno- 
rance and  of  poverty.  The  past  century  has 
revolutionized  everything.  And  the  chief  agency 
of  human  emancipation  has  been  the  creation  of 


54 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 

Capital 
the  chief 
agency  of 
progress 


The 

growth  of 
recent 
wealth 


wealth  or  capital  in  the  modern  sense,  due  to  a 
series  of  innovations  following  one  another  rapidly, 
and  best  characterized  in  a  word  by  reference 
to  the  utilization  of  steam  power,  the  develop- 
ment of  the  factory  system,  and  the  building  of 
railroads. 

It  has  been  so  often  said  that  it  has  become  a 
commonplace,  —  yet  at  this  point  it  may  well 
be  said  again,  —  that  nowadays  in  every  decade 
we  are  probably  creating  more  real  wealth  in  the 
world  than  had  come  into  existence,  in  countries 
having  our  kind  of  civilization,  through  all  the 
ages,  up  to  nearly  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  New  England  in  the  early  days  and 
Virginia  —  and  later  our  westward  valleys  — 
were  able,  out  of  the  first  freshness  and  richness 
of  the  virgin  soil,  to  give  a  sort  of  economic  inde- 
pendence and  rude  comfort  to  a  limited  popula- 
tion at  a  time  when  land  was  free  to  all  comers. 
But  the  great,  complex  structure  of  American 
civihzation  has  been  built  up  through  the  addition 
to  our  primitive  agriculture  of  further  costly  and 
elaborate  economic  processes. 

There  Avas  virtue,  intelligence,  and  a  certain 
charm  about  the  primitive  American  life.  But  all 
observation  and  experience  go  to  show  that  it 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  55 

could  not  long  have  held  its  own.     The  pioneer       chap.  ii. 
stage    is    temporary    and    transitional.     It    must    y^^g 
evolve  into  something  more  complex,  or  it  must   primitive 
inevitably  decay.     The  log-cabin  life,  in  the  first   ^^.g 
generation    of  determined   people   who   face   the 
wilderness  conditions  in  order  to  plant  the  begin- 
nings of  civilization  for  posterity,  is  compatible 
with  a  certain  dignity  of  manners,  and  with  a 
fair  degree  of  intellectual  culture. 

But  when  in  any  given  region  the  log-cabin  Stagnation 
period  takes  the  form  of  an  arrested  social  develop-  ^^^j-^  g^^gg 
ment,  and  hngers  on  into  the  second,  the  third, 
or  the  fourth  generation,  —  then  the  physical, 
the  moral,  and  the  mental  prowess  of  the  fore- 
fathers has  a  tendency  almost  wholly  to  disappear. 
Marks  of  degeneracy  become  apparent ;  and  it 
is  plain  that  the  only  salvation  of  such  a  region, 
which  has  failed  for  itself  to  grow  into  more 
advanced  and  complex  economic  and  social  con- 
ditions, must  be  the  sheer  injection,  from  Tvathout, 
of  the  transforming  hand  of  modern  capitahstic 
enterprise. 

The    destruction    of    the    poor    is    indeed    his   Economic 

poverty.     And    the    emancipation     of    povertv-  ^^^'^^'^i- 

"in  certain 

stricken   regions    must    come   about   through   an  regions 
economic  new  birth.     Let  us  look  for  a  moment 


56 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 


The 

Southern 

mountain 

districts 


concretely  at  processes  now  going  on  very  rapidly 
in  certain  parts  of  our  Southern  states,  in  order 
to  illustrate  the  slower  process  of  evolution  that 
has  been  at  work  for  a  century  in  England,  France, 
Massachusetts,  and  some  other  parts  of  our  own 
country. 

Undoubtedly  there  could  be  named  considerable 
districts,  perhaps  whole  counties,  in  the  upland 
or  mountainous  parts  of  several  Southern  states, 
where  as  recently  as  twenty  years  ago  there  was 
scarcely  a  house  really  fitted  for  human  habitation, 
scarcely  a  district  school  better  than  a  cabin  or  a 
shanty,  and  scarcely  a  teacher  fit  for  the  simplest 
tasks  of  the  teaching  profession.  In  those  regions 
there  was  perhaps  scarcely  a  mile  of  road  that 
could  be  traversed  at  all  times  of  the  year  by  a 
carriage,  and  scarcely  any  evidence  whatever 
of  private  thrift  or  progress,  or  of  public  asso- 
ciated life. 

What  had  gone  wrong  with  those  regions  ? 
They  had  been  settled  in  the  beginning  by  a  brave 
and  hardy  stock.  But  the  conditions  of  progress 
had  been  lacking,  and  as  the  freshness  and  spirit 
of  the  first  and  second  generations  passed  away, 
there  had  followed  the  unavoidable  decline  that 
goes  with  poverty  and  stagnation  of  life. 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  57 

Yet    in    many    neighborhoods    that    fifteen    or      chap.  ii. 
twenty  years  ago  answered  to  some  such  descrip-   j^^^ 
tion  as  this,  there  has  come  about  a  most  marvel-   arrival 
ous  transformation.     Some  capitaHst  or  business   capitalist 
corporation  has  developed  a  water  power,  built  a 
factory  or  a  mill,  opened  a  mine,  started  a  town, 
given  steady  work  to  the  men  and  women  who 
had  been  half  occupied  with  the  scanty  operations 
of  their  hillside  farms  and  their  log-cabin  homes. 
And  the  change  that  has  come  about  has  been 
like  the  brightness  and  hope   of  day,   following 
the  darkness  and  dread  of  night. 

Hundreds  of  families  that  had  lived  in  unwhole- 
some cabins  now  occupy  houses  of  several  rooms.   Social 

with    modern    comforts.     Steady    work,    regular  transfor- 
mations 
hours,   money  with  which  to  buy   proper  food,   of  the 

suitable  clothing,  decent  abodes,  and  the  modern  fo-'^^ory 

life 
appointments  of  a  decorous  home  life,  have  within 

two  decades  brought  these  backward  communities 
into  line  with  the  life  and  progress  of  the  outside 
world.  The  good  schoolhouse,  with  proper  ap- 
pointments, and  the  well-trained  and  inspiring 
teacher  have  made  their  appearance,  and  the 
children  are  living  in  contact  with  the  modern 
world  of  ideas. 

From  such  quickened   and   revived   neighbor- 


58 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 

How 
wealth 
brings 
civilization 


Popular 

culture 

requires 

diffused 

prosperity 


hoods  it  is  not  difficult  for  the  ambitious  boy  or 
girl  to  make  his  way  to  the  nearest  college  or 
university  about  which  his  teacher  gives  him 
hopeful  advice.  It  is  the  introduction  of  wealth 
in  the  form  of  industrial  capital,  providing  re- 
munerative work,  and  creating  and  distributing 
new  wealth,  that  has  thus  completely  changed 
the  aspect  of  life  in  these  once  hopeless  neighbor- 
hoods. There  had  been  no  schools  worth  the 
name  for  two  reasons :  first,  because  intelligence 
had  so  declined  that  the  demand  for  good  schools 
did  not  exist;  and  second  (and  chiefly),  because 
there  was  not  enough  social  or  neighborhood 
wealth  that  could  be  drawn  upon  to  build  a  good 
schoolhouse  or  to  pay  a  good  teacher. 

In  short,  all  the  conditions  of  American  life 
demand  an  educated,  efficient  democracy.  It 
will  not  answer,  as  in  former  generations,  to  give 
culture  and  training  to  the  few.  Yet  there  cannot 
be  culture  among  the  masses  of  the  people  with- 
out such  a  diffusion  of  wealth  as  will  support 
culture.  There  must  be  taxable  wealth  in  the 
state,  in  the  county,  in  the  neighborhood,  if  there 
are  to  be  good  schools,  good  roads,  and  those 
facilities  and  appointments  that  are  recognized 
as  making  up  the  irreducible  minimum  of  advan- 


PRESExNT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  59 

tages  to  which  in  common  decency  every  self-       chap.  ii. 
respecting     American    community    now    has    a  g^  ^^^^^ 
right    to    aspire.       Your    temples    of   knowledge   "*^'s<  be 
and  culture   must   be  multiplied  and  opened  to  y^galth 
everybody,  and  this   can   only  come   about   with 
the  large  growth  of  capital  and  the  diffusion  of 
wealth. 

We  are  indeed  face  to  face  with  some  "public 
and  social  problems  that  have  to  do  with  the 
wiser  and  better  control  of  masses  of  accumu- 
lated wealth  used  in  production.  And  it  is  my  pur- 
pose, after  a  few  moments  more,  to  say  something 
about  these  aspects  of  our  economic  life.  But 
let  me  dwell  for  a  moment  longer  upon  the  point 
that  I  believe  to  have  been  too  much  neglected 
in  our  recent  economic  discussion.  It  became 
the  fashion  to  say,  some  twenty-five  years  ago, 
that  from  the  days  of  Adam  Smith's  great  work 
on  "The  Wealth  of  Nations,"  down  to  the  days 
of  Henry  George's  "Progress  and  Poverty,"  the  Dicta 

chief  trend  of  economic  thought,  as  well  as  the         ,    ,. 

°  production 

chief  function  of  practical  economic  forces,  had  and  dis- 
to  do  with  the  production  of  wealth.     But  from 
that    time    forth,  —  so    went    the    dictum,  —  the 
foremost  question  had  come  to  be  the  distribution, 
upon   a   more   equitable   plan,   of  the   relatively 


60 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


The 

captivating 

partial 

truth 


CHAP.  11.       plentiful  means  of  life  that  the  new  forces  had 
brought  into  being. 

A  partial  truth  is  often  very  captivating.  And 
it  is  quite  true  that  the  great  increase  of  economic 
means,  already  realized  in  civilized  countries, 
ought  to  find  expression  in  a  vast  enhancement 
of  the  average  welfare.  In  other  words,  the 
standard  of  living  ought  to  have  advanced. 
Workers  ought  to  have  secured  shorter  hours  of 
toil,  ought  to  be  better  fed  and  clothed,  ought  to 
live  in  better  houses,  ought  to  have  far  better 
private  and  public  opportunities  for  the  comfort 
and  welfare  of  their  families  than  half  a  century 
ago.  Mr.  Henry  George  and  other  writers  took 
the  ground  that  modern  wealth  production  had 
fallen  far  short  of  its  reasonable  promise,  as 
respects  these  advantages  to  the  people  at  large. 
I  am  not  taking  issue  with  Mr.  George,  or  dealing 
contentiously  with  any  phase  of  this  subject. 
But  whether  or  not  the  governmental  or  legal 
conditions  under  which  our  economic  life  has 
developed  have  to  some  extent  stood  in  the  way 
of  the  just  and  fair  apportionment  of  benefits, 
there  has  in  the  main  been  freedom  of  economic 
opportunity,  and  there  has  been  a  very  wide- 
spread, even  though  insufficient,  apportionment 


Benefits 
already 
accrued 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  61 

of  the  yearly  results  of  economic  effort.     In  other       chap,  ii, 
words,  the  hours  of  labor  are  much  shorter,  the 
standard  of  living  is  much  advanced,  the  refine- 
ments of  life  are  far  more  accessible  and  better 
distributed  now  than  ever  before. 

The  doctrine  that  seems  to  me  to  have  been    Yet  the 
neglected  of  late  is  this ;  namely,  that  while  apply-  ^^^^Z"^^*^ 
ing  ourselves  to  the  correction  of  injustice  in  the   production 
dividing  up  of  the   results   of  productive  force, 
we  must  not  forget  that  what  we  chiefly  need  is 
the  still  larger  accumulation  of  productive  capital, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  still  larger  fund  for 
distribution  and  consumption,  on  the  other  hand. 
What  we  are  really  working  for  is  the  abolition  of 
poverty,  in   order  that  there   may  be   yet  more 
of  leisure,  and  refinement,  and  culture  in  the  lives 
of  all  the  people. 

With  the  right  kind  of  education,  allied  as  it    The  object 

is    with    the    wonderful    discoveries    of    modern   '^  *" 

abolish 

science,  we  know  that  culture  and  labor  can  go  poverty 
hand  in  hand.  Shall  we  then  fear  the  further 
growth  of  wealth  and  prosperity  in  this  country  ? 
Shall  we  allow  ourselves  to  believe  that  poverty 
is  wholesome  and  that  wealth  is  demoralizing.'^ 
Shall  we  apologize  for  making  two  blades  of 
grass  grow  where  one  grew  before .''     Shall  we 


62  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  II.  look  askance  at  the  man  who  is  diligent  in 
business,  and  whose  thrift  and  energy  give 
him  control  of  productive  capital,  the  use  of 
which  ameliorates  the  condition  of  an  entire 
neighborhood  ? 

An  in-  We  are  afraid  of  these  things  only  when  w.e 

stance  of       gtate  them  argumentatively,  or  in  abstract  terms. 

work  for 

enhanced      Let  US  look  at  some  of  them  concretely,  because 

production  j  ^^  intending  in  this  talk  to  young  men  to  deal 
with  the  philosophy  of  things  that  they  are  going 
to  find  very  practical  in  their  future  work.  I 
have  more  than  once  had  occasion  to  speak  of  a 
Western  professor  of  agriculture,  who  began  some 
three  or  four  years  ago  to  teach  to  his  state  the 
doctrine  of  scientific  selection  in  the  choice  of 
seed  corn.  He  had  experimented  very  carefully 
on  the  state  agricultural  farm.  He  gave  the 
results  through  printing  press  and  word  of  mouth 
to  all  the  farmers  of  a  great  agricultural  state. 
He  showed  them  how  they  could  immediately 
increase  the  corn  crop,  by  a  good  many  bushels 
to  the  acre,  every  year.  His  efforts  at  once  added 
millions  of  dollars  to  the  yearly  income  of  the 
farmers,  and  at  least  a  hundred  million  dollars 
to  the  permanent  value  of  the  farm  lands  of  the 
state  that  employed  him. 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  63 

This,  then,  is  exactly  what  I  mean  by  preaching       chap.  ii. 
the  gospel  that  further  wealth  production  is  what   j^r^^^j^ 

we  need,  and  that  if  we  go  about  it  broadly  and  rightly 

•  •  "pvodtcccd 

intelligently  we  shall  do  good  and  not  harm,  so  ^^^ 

that  the  question  of  distribution  will  have  a  ten-   demoraliz- 

dency  to  take  care  of  itself.     Whatever,  then,  one 

may  say  about  the  demoralization  of  wealth  in 

the  abstract,  when  it  comes  to  a  concrete  case, 

nobody   really   believes   that   the    wealth    of  the 

farmer  who  has  grown  rich  because  he  has  farmed 

wisely  and  intelligently,  is  half  so  demoralizing 

as  the  poverty  of  his  neighbor,  who  has  remained 

poor  because  he  has  not  brought  his  land  up  to 

its  reasonable  possibilities. 

I  might  cite  as  another  instance  the  great  pros-   In  the 

perity  that  has  come  to  certain  parts  of  Louisiana  ^    .  °\ 

agriculture 

and  Texas  through  a  new  kind  of  rice  farming, 
introduced  by  a  representative  of  the  Department 
of  Agriculture,  who  is  a  man  of  great  learning, 
practical  sense,  and  desire  for  the  progress  and 
welfare  of  the  country.  Or  I  could  take,  for 
further  example,  the  great  fight  of  the  cotton 
growers  of  the  South  against  the  boll  weevil,  and 
the  enormous  enhancement  of  wealth  due  to  ex- 
periments and  efforts  in  the  field  of  an  improved 
cotton  culture. 


64  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  II.  Recently  we  were  reading  in  the  newspapers  of 

An  in-         ^^'  Edison's  journeyings  through  this  region  in 
stance  in       search  of  deposits  of  a  metaUic  substance  called 

the  tTti/TlBTCtt 

^^l^  cobalt.     Far  be  it  from  me  to  tell  you  anything 

about  cobalt  and  its  uses,  but  Mr.  Edison  is 
reported  to  have  said  that  its  finding  in  ample 
commercial  quantities  would  make  storage  bat- 
teries so  much  cheaper,  that  electric  automobiles 
would  banish  truck  horses  from  the  streets,  and 
come  within  the  means  for  pleasure  purposes  of 
many  a  family  that  otherwise  could  not  indulge 
in  that  form  of  modern  diversion. 

A  new  Surely    nobody    supposes    that    Mr.    Edison's 

conimercia     (jjgcQygpy   ^nd    utilization    of   supplies    of   cobalt 
substance  "'  ^  ^ 

could  be  otherwise  than  commendable  and  benefi- 
cent. A  great  industry  has  been  built  up  in 
recent  years  through  the  invention  of  processes 
that  give  to  the  world  for  many  uses  at  a  cheap 
price  the  metal  called  aluminum.  Such  develop- 
ments add  at  once  to  private  wealth  and  public 
weal ;  and  to  deny  it  is  to  abdicate  common  sense. 
No  alarm  Wlien,    therefore,    we    talk    in    abstract    terms 

in     e  real     about  the  growth  of  wealth  and  its  dangers,  we 

processes  ^ 

of  wealth       give  ourselves  a  kind   of  alarm  that  disappears 
pro  uction    ^,]^pjj  ^g  fa^pg  directly  most  of  the  real  processes 

by   which   wealth   is   created   and   accumulated. 


PRESENT  ECOiNOMIC  PROBLEMS  65 

It  is  Professor  Holden  teaching  the  farmers  how       chap,  ii, 

to  raise  corn ;    it  is  Dr.   Knapp  promoting  rice 

culture;    it   is   somebody   else   fighting  the   boll 

weevil ;   it  is  the  inventor  who  gives  us  aluminum 

or  the  electric  light,  or  the  cyanide  process  for 

the  reduction  of  low-grade  gold  ore,  —  it  is  these 

men,  and  many  others  of  whom  these  are  examples, 

who  are  producing  the  enhanced  wealth  of  the 

country,  and  they  are  engaged  in  a  mission  of 

great   beneficence.     The   enlarged   corn   crop   of 

Iowa  will  send  many  a  boy  and  girl  to  college   What  it 

who  would  not  otherwise  have  gone.     It  will  in- 

®  practice 

crease  the  taxable  basis   and   provide   many  an 

improved   country   school   and    many   a   mile   of 

good  roadway;    and  the  scientific  work  of  your 

own  university  laboratories  will  have  so  unlocked 

hidden  treasures  of  mineral  wealth  in  your  own 

state  as  to  accomplish  like  results. 

The  more  energetically  you  turn  your  attention   The  thing 

to  the  further  development  of  the  resources  of  <^«<  ^« '»  6e 

done 
wealth  lying  all  about  you,  working  in  the  right 

spirit  and  under  modern  conditions  of  fair  play, 
the  better  it  will  be  for  everybody  in  the  com- 
munity. We  have  scratched  the  surface  of  the 
country  from  one  ocean  to  the  other,  and  in  many 
parts  of  it  we  have  exhausted  the  first  richness  of 


66 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 


The 

intensive 

methods 


Growth  and 
power  of 
individual 
fortunes 


the  soil.  But  in  the  very  nick  of  time  scientific 
agriculture  has  come  to  our  aid ;  nature  study 
tends  to  alleviate  some  of  the  drudgery  of  life  on 
the  land ;  the  telephone,  free  rural  delivery,  cheap 
and  abundant  reading  matter,  better  means  of 
transit,  and  many  other  modern  facilities,  give  fresh 
hope  and  courage  to  the  people  who  till  the  soil. 

Thus  we  shall  increase  and  multiply  the  wealth 
produced  from  the  land  as  the  years  go  by,  and 
as  our  farmers  apply  scientific  knowledge  and 
the  intensive  methods  of  culture.  In  like  manner 
we  shall  train  and  develop  the  inventive  genius 
of  the  boys,  whether  of  the  mountain  side  or  of 
the  city,  and  add  untold  wealth  to  the  community 
through  new  industrial  processes  and  a  higher 
utilization  of  human  skill  and  resource. 

But,  some  one  may  fairly  object,  while  it  is 
true  that  all  this  great  coming  development  of 
prosperity  through  improved  knowledge  and  skill, 
the  better  use  of  the  soil,  the  opening  of  mines, 
the  utilizing  of  electric  power,  and  the  perfection 
of  industrial  processes  cannot  be  harmful  and 
must  be  of  general  benefit,  what  is  there  to  be  said 
about  the  monopolistic  power  of  individual  for- 
tunes grown  so  great  that  they  seem  beyond  all 
social  control  ? 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  67 

It  would  be  useless  to  deny  that  the  existence  of       chap.  ii. 
these  colossal  fortunes  is  very  generally  regarded   ^^^  ^f^ 
by  thoughtful   men  as  to  be   regretted.     But  it   a  menace? 
cannot  now  be  safely  said  with  certainty  that  such 
fortunes  are  destined  to  constitute  a  menace  in  the 
future.     Their  vastness  has  been  due  to  condi- 
tions that  must  be  frankly  studied,  and  that  must 
in  some  respects  be  severely  changed. 

In  mediaeval  days,  the  barons  built  their  castles    The 

on  the  cliffs  along  the  Rhine,  armed  their  retainers,   ^°    ^^    , 

harons  of 

and  took  forcible  toll  of  the  merchants  and  traf-  olden 
fickers,  all  the  way  from  Switzerland  to  the  Nether- 
lands,  who  used  the  river  as  their  main  highway 
of  trade.  And  thus  the  barons  became  rich  and 
powerful.  And  they  seemed,  indeed,  to  consti- 
tute a  serious  menace  to  the  general  welfare. 
But  as  civilization  developed,  the  feudal  customs   Changes 

and  tyrannies  disappeared.     The  castles  fell  into  ""^ 

highways 

ruins.     In  due  time  there  were  railroads  on  both  of  trade 
banks  of  the  Rhine,  and  a  wholly  new  set  of  prob- 
lems confronted  those  who  bought  and  sold  and 
trafficked  in  merchandise  along  the  Rhine  valley 
with  its  rich  cities  and  modern  activities. 

You  will  already  have  anticipated  what  I  am   How  we 

going  to  say.     We  created  our  railroad  system     "^    "^f 

^       ®  -^  *'  railroads 

in  this  country  under  conditions  of  bold  private 


68 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  ir. 


The  specu- 
lative era 


A  system 
of  railroad 
favors  — 


Which 
gave  rise 
to  the 
new  kind 
of  "mag- 
nates " 


initiative,  crass  speculation,  and  total  failure  of 
government  on  the  one  hand,  and  public  opinion 
on  the  other,  to  understand  the  true  functions  of 
the  railroads  as  common  carriers  and  public 
highways.  The  government  gave  away  imperial 
zones  of  land,  and  lent  its  credit  to  syndicates 
and  companies  to  get  the  railroads  built.  Then, 
in  turn,  the  railroads  trafficked  in  land  and  town 
sites,  promoted  manufacturing  enterprises,  and 
competed  with  one  another  recklessly  and  furi- 
ously for  traffic  with  which  to  keep  from  falling 
too  frequently  into  bankruptcy  courts  and  receiv- 
erships. 

The  consequence  of  this  system  was  that  every 
merchant  or  manufacturer  secured  from  the 
railroad  the  best  rates  he  could  get ;  and  the  more 
powerful  the  shipper,  the  larger  was  the  secret 
rebate  he  was  able  to  obtain,  to  the  disadvantage 
of  other  competing  shippers  in  his  own  line. 
And  thus  arose  a  system  of  favoritism  in  the 
employment  of  the  great  highways  of  commerce 
that  built  up  the  wheat  and  grain  magnates  own- 
ing elevator  lines;  the  beef  and  packing-house 
barons ;  the  iron  and  steel  and  coal  magnates, 
the  petroleum  monopolists,  and  others  in  their 
turn  and  their  degree.     It  was  all  in  its  peculiar 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  69 

way  almost  as  simple,  when  one  stops  to   con-       chap.  ii. 
sider  it,  as  the  system  by   which   the   medieval 
barons   of  the   Rhine   took  undue  advantage  of 
the   trade   that   had   to   pass  along  that  historic 
waterway. 

Let  us  not  be  too  full  of  indignation  against   Who  was 
those  who  benefited  most  from  an  objectionable  , , 
system.     The  smaller  traders  who  paid  toll  on 
the  Rhine  would  gladly  have  exchanged  places 
with  the  men  who  owned  the  castles  on  the  shores 
if  they  could,  or  yet  more  gladly  with  the  larger 
traders  who  paid  less  toll.     Our  recent  period 
of  railway  discrimination  was  one  in  which  every 
shipper,  great  and  small,  was  glad  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  best  rate  he  could  possibly  get.     We   The  later 
had  to  live  through  this  peculiar  period  in  our  (conception 
economic  history,  in  order  finally  to  come  into  roads  as 
the  conception  of  railroads  as  essentially  public  P"''"'^ 
in  their  nature.     Many  of  the  greatest  fortunes 
of  the  country  are  simply  due  to  the  fact  that  those 
who  had  the  best  railroad  rates  could  do  the  most 
business,  and  in  a  country  as  great  and  prosperous 
as  ours,  to  do  the  most  business  meant  to  become   Mean- 

exceedingly  rich.     If  we   were   somewhat  tardy  ^'"^^-^"^ 

®  "^  •'    favorites 

in   rescuing  the   national   highways   from   unfair  were  rich 
use  in  the  interest  of  favored  individuals  or  com- 


70  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  II.       panics,   we  seem   at   la.st   to  have  become  fairly 
awake  to  that  whole  situation. 

And  since  this  forms  one  of  the  essential  .strands 
in  the  thread  of  my  discourse,  1  may  be  allowed 
to  say  something  further,  at  this  point,  upon  the 
railroad  question  as  fundamental  in  its  bearing  on 
almost  every  phase  of  the  problems  of  wealth  pro- 
duction, control,  and  distribution  in  this  country. 

The  Naturally,  then,  the  railroads  developed  some 

masters  of     „yqh\   magnates   or   barons   of  their   own.    under 

transpor-       ^ 

tation  the  speculative  and  ill-regulated  system  that  pre- 

vailed, and  it  could  not  have  been  otherwise. 
They  were  not  worse  men  in  their  relations  to 
the  community  than  smaller  business  men  who 
envied  them.  On  the  contrary,  in  the  main, 
they  were  men  of  large  vision  and  great  capacity, 
whose  part  in  the  useful  development  of  the  coun- 
try was  even  greater  than  the  princely  rewards 
they  took  to  themselves  for  their  efforts. 

Rhine  There  were  in  those  olden  times  to  which  I  have 

barons  and    j-eieTTed  great  Hanseatic  merchants  who  got  on 
merchants 

well  with  the  barons  of  the  Rhine  clifl's,  and  who 

regarded  the  tolls  they  paid  as  for  protection,  safe 
conduct,  and  unimpeded  navigation.  And  doubt- 
less, in  the  alliance  between  the  richer  of  the  mer- 
chants and  the  stronger  of  the  feudal  chiefs,  the 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  71 

merchants  got  the  larger  share  of  the  profit  from       chap.  a. 

the  use  of  the  Rhine  for  purposes  of  commerce. 

We  need  not  pursue  the  analogy  any  further.   How 

The  exchange  of  local  surpluses  throughout  this  ^"-^'-^''^'^ 

°  have  pro- 

country,    made   possible   by   railroads,   has   been   moted 

the  foremost  single  fac-tor  in  promoting  the  stu-  "'^°''" 
pendous  enlargement  of  wealth  that  has  come 
afiout  in  our  own  times.  The  railroad  system 
has  enriched  those  fortunate  enough  to  control 
it,  and  it  has  aggrandized  those  who  were  able 
to  make  use  of  it  on  more  favorable  terms  than 
their  fellows.  And  so  the  great  industrial  mag- 
nates, so-called,  in  close  and  confidential  alliance   The 

with  the  railway  powers,  have  OTOwn  enormously  *P^"<^* 

_    -^    \  .  (finances 

rich ;    and  this  alliance  has,  in  many  cases,  been 

the  true  .secret  of  their  growth.  It  is  this  that 
goes  far  to  explain  the  my.stery  of  their  rapid 
overshadowing  of  competitors. 

The  time  has  come  to  see  all  this  clearly,  and  Only  half 
it  should  be  .stated  without  hesitation  and  with  ^^^"^^""y 
utter  frankness.  But  it  is  only  part  of  the  story. 
It  has  all  belonged  to  a  disappearing  age  of  specu- 
lative development,  in  which  not  only  the  rail- 
road sy.stem,  but  almost  every  other  form  of 
business  activity  was  completely  involved,  in  the 
three  or  four  decades  following  the  Civil  War. 


72 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 

The 

mitigating 
conditions 


The  real 
test  of 
wealth 


What  the 
great 
fortunes 
mean 


The  misuse  of  the  railway  system  to  some  extent, 
—  harmful  as  it  was  to  the  victims  of  a  favored 
and  rebated  competition,  —  did  not  outweigh 
its  general  advantages.  The  undue  wealth  of 
the  barons  of  transportation  and  industry  was, 
and  is,  small  in  comparison  with  the  vast  dis- 
tributed accumulations  that  have  gone  to  the 
enrichment  of  thousands  of  communities  and 
millions  of  individuals,  through  the  opening  up 
of  200,000  miles  of  commerce-bearing  steel  high- 
ways in  the  United  States. 

Always  keep  in  mind  the  two  kinds  of  wealth; 
namely,  that  which  consists  in  the  control  of  the 
means  of  production,  and  that  which  signifies 
abundance  for  purposes  of  use  in  consumption. 
The  man  who  owns  great  New  England  shoe  fac- 
tories has  large  capitalistic  power;  but  the  final 
test  of  wealth  is  in  the  ability  of  the  people  in 
general  to  buy  and  wear  all  the  shoes  they  need. 
In  this  country,  thus  far,  the  great  fortunes 
have  not  been  used  very  wastef ully.  They  simply 
mean  a  centering  of  control  over  capital  engaged 
in  producing  things.  When  such  capital  is  man- 
aged efficiently,  the  results  must,  of  necessity,  in 
the  main,  be  distributed  to  the  community  at 
large  in  the  form  of  commodities  that  enter  into 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  73 

common  use.     The   shoe  manufacturer's  wealth       chap.  ii. 
—  in  the  form  of  control  over  factories  and  ma-   y^g 

chinery  —  would  speedily  disappear  but  for  the  capitalist's 

,.«.        ,  ,  ,         »      ,  ,  1  .  ,  dependence 

dinused    wealth    oi    the    people    which    enables 

them  to  buy  his  output. 

But    the    truth    is   that    productive    capital   is 

increasing   very   rapidly,    and    must   continue   to 

do  so;    and  that  those  now  in  control  of  it  have 

an  advantage  over  others  in  securing  control  of  Control 

further    new    increments    of    capital.     We    shall  o/^^^P^^^^ 

is  too 

have  to  go  on  even  more  than  heretofore  with  much  con- 
production  on  the  large  scale,  backed  up  by  accu-  c^"^*^°^^" 
mulated  capital.    /And  the  control  of  that  capital^ 
should  not  rest  so  largely  in  the  hands  of  a  few. 
At  some  points,  the  government  should,  directly 
or  indirectly,  share  in  the  control,  while  at  other 
points  there  should  be  a  wider   subdivision    of 
control  among  private  owners. 

A  perfectly  fair  use  of  railroads  will  have  much   First,  let 

to  do  with  checkino;  the  tendency  toward  the  dan-      ^  \'^^  ' 

°  ''  roads 

gerous  concentration  of  capital  in  a  few  hands ;  abolish 
and  when  the  tendency  is  checked,  the  problem  J'^^^^^ 
loses  its  immediate  urgency.     It  may  then  safely 
be  left  for  those  solutions  that  will  come  with 
longer  time  and  more  thorough  study. 

Thus,  thirty  years  ago,  the   problem  of  land 


74 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 

How 
'problems 
lose  their 
urgency 


The  way 
of  relief 


The  hope- 
ful view- 
point 


monopoly  in  Ireland  seemed  frightfully  urgent; 
but  it  is  now  working  itself  out  on  just  and  wise 
lines  with  everybody's  rights  fairly  observed,  and 
with  new  methods  of  farming,  and  of  coopera- 
tion in  country  life,  now  promising  at  an  early  day 
to  transform  completely  the  Irish  peasantry.  It 
all  began  with  laws  to  regulate  the  rent  system, 
and  to  mitigate  the  evils  of  absentee  land- 
lordism. 

In  like  manner  we  shall  in  due  time  work 
out  the  problems  involved  in  the  overweening 
control  of  railway  and  industrial  capital  by  a 
few  people.  And  as  Ireland's  regeneration  began 
with  laws  to  secure  a  fair  land  system,  so  our 
relief  from  some  of  the  evils  and  dangers  of  mo- 
nopoly and  concentrated  wealth  power  will  come 
with  laws  —  national  and  state  —  to  secure  a 
reasonable  and  impartial  use  of  the  means  of 
transportation. 

We  are  in  the  very  thick  of  newspaper  sensa- 
tions and  industrial  and  political  turmoil  just 
now,  because  these  evils  of  wealth  control  and 
of  corporate  management  have  been  coming  into 
the  light  as  never  before.  But  it  is  not  the  time 
for  a  depressed  view  of  American  life  and  affairs. 
Exposure  and  criticism  had  to  precede  thorough- 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  75 

going  relief.     And  it   is   not  when  evils   are  in       chap.  ii. 
process  of  remedy  that  there  is  most  ground  for 
discouragement,    though    the    process    may    be 
highly  disturbing  and  painful  while  it  lasts. 

When  real  emergencies  come,  the  people  of  the  The  task 
United  States  are  usually  right-minded  and  effi- 
cient.  The  important  task  before  them  now 
indicates  nothing  else  so  much  as  it  does  a  whole- 
some growth  and  progress.  The  body  politic 
has  vigor  and  health.  Therefore  it  throws  off 
what  would  otherwise  bring  decay. 

The  use  by  the  federal  government  of  the 
power  to  regulate  interstate  commerce,  and  by 
the  states  of  their  power  over  common  carriers 
and  chartered  corporations,  was  never  so  necessary 
as  now,  and  the  railroads  will  not  be  the  least  of 
those  benefited. 

For  the  most  part,  the  railroads  came  into  being 
as  a  part  of  the  means  for  opening  up  a  new 
country;    and  our  conditions  created  a  race  of   The 

men  with  whom  individual  and  private  initiative  ^^"  .  ., . 

^  great  imtta- 

was  stronger  than  anywhere  else  at  any  time  in  live 
the  world's  history.     A  great  part  of  the  railroad 
mileage  of  the  country  was  built  in  advance  of 
actual  needs,  and  the  population  and  wealth  of 
regions  traversed  by  the  new  lines  had  to  grow  up. 


76 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 


Growing 
up  to  the 
railroads 


At  length, 
the  new 
conception 
of  a  riper 
period 


in  order  to  give  solid  value  to  the  transportation 
properties. 

It  was  customary  to  look  upon  railroads  not 
merely  as  private  enterprises,  but  to  regard  them 
as  of  a  highly  speculative  and  extra-hazardous 
nature,  in  which  investors  risked  much  on  the 
chance  of  final  rewards  of  a  corresponding  mag- 
nitude. Most  of  the  roads,  as  I  have  already 
intimated,  went  into  bankruptcy  sooner  or  later, 
and  some  of  them  passed  through  more  than  one 
period  of  receivership  and  reorganization.  As 
the  country  matured,  railroad  property  became 
more  stable,  until  finally  the  great  systems  were 
well  beyond  danger  of  serious  financial  reverse. 
Business  interests  all  along  the  lines  became  di- 
versified, and  it  was  no  longer  necessary  for  the 
railroads  to  secure  traffic  by  favoring  and  build- 
ing up  special  or  particular  interests. 

The  time  came  when  there  emerged  the  clear 
conception  of  the  railroad  as  a  great  necessary 
public  servant,  with  all  the  obligations  of  a  com- 
mon carrier,  and  with  no  right,  therefore,  to  dis- 
criminate for  or  against  any  of  those  whose  busi- 
ness required  them  to  make  use  of  the  public 
highway.  The  whole  thing  has  come  about  by 
way  of  evolution  from  transient,  speculative,  im- 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  77 

mature  conditions   to  those  of  a  riper  period  of       chap.  ii. 
industrial  life  and  civilization. 

Yet  abuses,  even  when  naturally  outgrown,  are 
often  hard  to  destroy.     For  even  as  the  tree  grows 
great,  so  also  will  the  entwining  parasite  some- 
times have  a  stronger  clutch.     And  many  of  the 
favored  industries  built  up  on  special  transporta- 
tion favors  have  been  in  a  position  powerful  enough   Adjust- 
to  make  it  difficult  for  particular  railroad  corpora-  ^^^^  ^^^^ 
tions  to  relinquish  the  rebates  or  the  other  forms  of  itself 
of  favoritism.     It  is  probably  true,  however,  that 
the   very   growth    of   business   conditions  would 
sooner  or  later  have   compelled   the  railroads  to 
cease  discrimination  and  treat  all  comers  fairly, 
even  if  there  had  been  no  interstate  commerce 
legislation. 

However  that  may  be,  the  government's  power   Timeliness 
to  regulate  interstate  commerce  is  a  chief  correct-    -^ 
ing  agency  at  the  present  time;   and  it  is  helping  reforms 
the  railroads  and  the  shippers  to  readjust  rela- 
tions on  a  fair  and  proper  modern  basis. 

The  railway  reforms,  now  coming  about  through 
government  action  on  the  one  hand  and  evolution 
of  business  conditions  on  the  other,  are  especially 
timely  for  two  reasons.  First,  they  will  save  us 
from  a  premature  agitation  of  the  demand  for 


78 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 


The  alter- 
natives 


End  of  the 

pioneer 

epoch 


the  government  ownership  and  operation  of 
railroads;  and  second,  they  will  encourage  thou- 
sands of  energetic  men  to  use  their  brains,  and 
such  capital  as  they  can  enlist,  in  new  efforts  for 
wealth  production. 

We  had  reached  the  limit  under  the  old  system. 
Railroads  had  to  be  emancipated,  for  the  further 
rapid  progress  of  the  country  in  its  varied  business 
life.  And  if  at  Washington  reform  had  been 
successfully  obstructed,  then  the  fight  for  govern- 
mental administration  of  the  railway  network 
would  have  come  on  in  dead  earnest,  with  our 
political  conditions  very  poorly  adapted  to  such  a 
tremendous  increase  of  public  functions.  It  is 
this  that  gives  the  underlying  significance  to  the 
recent  struggles  at  Washington  for  new  railroad 
legislation. 

The  disappearing  methods  grew  up  with  the 
rude  forces  of  the  pioneering  epoch  that  created 
the  new  West  beyond  the  Mississippi  after  the 
Civil  War,  that  built  up  the  manufactures  of  the 
East  under  the  forcing  processes  of  a  high  tariff, 
and  that  deserve  credit  for  some  of  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  New  South.  But  the  pioneering 
epoch,  as  I  have  occasion  to  show  at  length  in 
another   chapter  is  practically  complete  for  the 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  79 

United  States ;  and  we  have  to  deal  henceforth       chap.  ii. 
with  the  problems  of  a  mature  country.     By  this 
I  do  not  mean  a  finished  country,  but  a  country 
ripe  for  a  second  period  of  intensive  and  complex 
development. 

Success  is  no  longer  waiting  toward  the  sunset.    The 
There  is  no  West  or  East,  or  North  or  South,  f/Jf^^l^^ 
where  the  young  man  can  go  in  order  to  find  appeared 
prosperity   assured,   by   merely   identifying   him- 
self with  the  growing  country.     But  just  as  fruit 
farming    succeeded  wheat   lands    in    California, 
where    the  wheat  fields    in    turn    had    followed 
grazing,  —  so  in  every  part  of  the  country  there 
is  great  opportunity  for  those  prepared  to  see 
how  radical  are  the  possibilities  of  progress  in 
any  given  neighborhood. 

Untold  resources  of  wealth  —  not  for  the  multi-   Conserving 

millionaire  alone,  but  chiefly  for  the  community 

'  "^  •'    resources 

at  large  —  are  awaiting  the  further  progress 
even  of  our  older  states.  Before  our  hard- 
wood forests  of  the  mountain  slopes  are  all  con- 
verted into  articles  of  utility,  we  will  have  learned 
how  to  maintain  them  in  perpetuity  through  the 
methods  of  modern  forestry.  And  we  will  have 
learned  how  private  business  enterprise,  scientific 
instruction    in  our    higher    institutions,  and  the 


80 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 


The 
forests 


The  soil 


The  new 
education 


fostering  care  of  state  and  national  governments, 
can  all  work  together  in  harmony  to  secure  the 
best  and  most  lasting  economic  advantages  from 
a  great  natural  resource  like  the  forests. 

So  much  for  an  illustration.  The  earlier 
epoch  slashed  the  forests  away  in  frantic  haste 
for  the  sake  of  immediate  private  wealth. 
Scientific  forestry  belongs  to  the  new  period, 
in  which  public  and  private  interests  alike 
require  that  forests  be  used  without  being 
destroyed. 

Take  another  example:  the  old  method  of 
farming  cropped  the  soil,  regardless  of  its  ex- 
haustion; the  new  agriculture  will  restore  worn- 
out  lands,  find  new  crops,  and  secure  results 
tenfold  greater  than  those  of  the  discarded,  primi- 
tive modes  of  farming. 

Education  and  economic  advance  will  go  hand 
in  hand.  And  the  new  sort  of  education  will 
especially  qualify  the  coming  generation  for  new 
and  unanticipated  results  in  the  effort  to  improve 
material  conditions.  For  every  one  concedes 
that  men  must  work,  to  gain  food  and  shelter 
and  leisure,  and  the  means  for  a  higher  life.  And 
with  what  we  know  and  see  about  us,  it  would 
be  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  coming  men  are 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  81 

not  to  work  under  better  advantages  and  with       chap.  ii. 
far  better  results  than  their  predecessors. 

They  will  develop  your  mineral  wealth  to  an   What  the 
extent   that   would    now   seem   fabulous.     They  ^g^»  ^^n 
will    harness    your   waterfalls,     transmute     your  accomplish 
coal  deposits,   and   multiply  the   applications   of 
electricity;    they  will  equalize  the  advantages  of 
country  living  and  city  living  and  minimize  the 
disadvantages  of  both,  for  they  will  suburbanize 
or  countrify  the  cities,  and  give  all  sorts  of  social 
advantages   to   factory   workers,    while   reducing 
the  isolation  and  hardship  of  country  life  in  many 
ways,  some  of  which  are  already  well  begun. 

With    the     needful     development     of    private   The  needs 

wealth,  there  can  also  be  vast  enhancement  of  'Y  .  ^ 

'  state 

the  public  income.  And  the  state  will  need 
ever-increasing  revenues  in  order  to  maintain 
the  progressive  standards  of  a  more  exacting 
civilization.  Thus,  the  state  provides  schools, 
but  the  schools  of  the  future  must  be  very  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  the  past  and  the  present. 

In  the  state  of  New  York,  the  best  school  at  A  New 
present  for  a  workingman's  son  is  at  Elmira.     It  g^^^^g 
is   a   great   boarding  school  with  every  kind   of 
facility,  and  it  gives  free  board,  lodging,  and  in- 
struction.    It    affords    splendid    physical    disci- 


82 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 


Training 

for 

convicts 


Give  the 
honest  hoy 
a  like 
chance 


pline,  gives  as  good  military  drill  as  West  Point, 
provides  proper  mental  and  moral  training,  and 
teaches  every  young  man  a  good  practical  trade 
to  the  point  of  high  efficiency.  It  accommodates 
perhaps  1200  young  men.  Unfortunately,  the 
state  gives  this  admirable  opportunity  for  fitness 
to  enter  the  modern  world  of  work  only  to  young 
men  whose  credentials  are:  the  proved  commis- 
sion of  a  felonious  crime.  The  uneducated  son 
of  a  workingman  who  will  break  a  plate-glass 
window  and  take  a  watch,  may  hope  to  go  to  the 
Elmira  State  Reformatory  Prison,  whence,  after 
two  or  three  years,  he  will  emerge,  —  stigmatized, 
indeed,  as  a  convict,  —  but  well  trained  for  prac- 
tical life,  with  strong  physique,  just  ideas  of  public 
and  private  conduct,  and  the  mastery  of  a  profit- 
able trade  or  handicraft. 

Now,  for  many  years,  it  has  been  clear  to  my 
mind  that  what  the  state  of  New  York  does  for 
thousands  of  youths  who  have  violated  the  penal 
code,  it  must  some  day  do  for  the  honest  lad 
whose  father  cannot  provide  such  opportunities 
for  him.  We  have  adopted  the  principle  that  the 
state  is  to  instruct  and  train  the  young.  Let 
us  not  shrink  from  the  full  application  of  that 
principle.     What  the  state  does  for  young  crimi- 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  83 

nals,  for  the  blind,  or  for  the  deaf  mutes,  and       chap,  ii, 

what  the  national  government    does    for   young 

Indians  in  its  great  industrial  schools,  we  should 

expect  to  find  equaled,  at  least,  in  provisions  made 

sooner  or  later  for  the  sons  and  daughters  of  all 

the  people.     And  this  will  require  a  development   It  xvill 

of  public,  and  therefore  of   private,  wealth   far  '"^3"*^^ 
^  ^  'public 

greater    than    we    have    yet    attained.     But    the  wealth 
wealth    invested    in    such  training  of  the  young 
will  be  returned  many  times  over  in  the  results 
of  their  increased  efficiency  as  producers. 

We  do  not  need  to  invoke  new  principles.  We  The  old 
must  simply  extend  and  improve  the  appfication  of  .,, ,  ,, 
the  principles  already  acknowledged.  We  must 
find  the  true  balance  between  public  author- 
ity and  private  enterprise.  We  may  find  some 
things  that  the  state  can  do  for  all  of  us  better 
than  we  can  do  them  for  ourselves;  but  we  are 
not  going  to  industrialize  government  in  our  day, 
and  we  need  not  fear  to  use  government  to  the 
full,  where  it  has  proper  place  for  use.  The 
state  will  not  run  our  factories,  but  it  will  protect 
society  from  some  of  the  dangers  of  unregulated 
competition  among  private  factory  operators. 
Thus,  it  may  enforce  sanitary  conditions  and 
have  some  rules  to  give  as  to  hours  of  labor. 


84 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 


Socialism 
as  a 

doubtful 
remedy 


Govern- 
ment 
and  its 
relation  to 
health 


especially  where  women  and  children  are  con- 
cerned. 

The  author  of  a  popular  novel,  based  upon  a 
realistic  study  of  conditions  in  the  Chicago  stock 
yards  and  packing  houses,  ends  his  book  with 
an  impassioned  plea  for  socialism.  His  remedy 
is  the  control  of  productive  wealth  by  the  govern- 
ment. He  would  put  us  all  in  the  uniform  of 
the  state,  in  order  somehow  to  protect  us  from 
evils  he  discovers  in  the  workings  of  the  present 
economic  system. 

But  the  remedy  he  proposes  is  untried,  while 
the  evils  he  deplores  may  not,  after  all,  prove 
deep-seated,  and  may  yield  with  wonderful 
promptness  to  the  remedies  already  at  hand. 
Thus  in  due  time  the  ancient  Chinese  learned 
(see  Charles  Lamb)  that  they  did  not  always 
have  to  burn  down  the  house  every  time  they 
wanted  a  roast  pig ! 

Let  us  admit  without  hesitation  that  the  care 
of  the  public  health  is  a  necessary  function  of 
government  under  modern  conditions  of  knowl- 
edge regarding  diseases  and  their  spread.  Europe 
is  now  saving  millions  of  lives  of  little  children 
by  public  regulation  of  milk  supply.  Public 
health  measures  are  abolishing  epidemics,  such 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  85 

as  prevailed  forty  years  ago,  whether  of  cholera,       chap.  ii. 

yellow   fever,    smallpox,    typhoid,    or   diphtheria. 

The  individual  cannot  protect  himself  in  these   What 

matters,  and  health  laws  and  administration  are  ^o'^^rnmen 

can  do  well 

a  necessary  application  of  the  police  powers  of 
government.  The  simple  question  is.  Does  gov- 
ernment do  these  things  well  ?  And  I  answer. 
It  does  them  marvelously  well,  all  things  con- 
sidered. When  it  began  to  do  them,  in  our 
crowded  cities,  the  death  rate  exceeded  the  birth 
rate,  and  human  life  was  cheap  and  miserable. 
Already  the  new  methods  have  greatly  reduced 
the  death  rate  of  all  cities,  and  the  average  lon- 
gevity has  increased  remarkably. 

From  time  to  time  new  facts  and  instances 
will  come  to  light  to  show  that  public  regulation 
in  the  interests  of  health  must  occupy  itself  with 
some  fresh  case  or  in  some  unexpected  direction. 
Thus  governments,  local  or  general,  can  inspect 
food  supply  just  as  they  can  institute  quarantines 
and  provide  epidemic  hospitals  in  case  of  infec- 
tious disease. 

The  test  of  old  principles  lies  in  their  strength   The  state 

when   new   needs    arise.     Can   state   supervision  ^^^  '"^^^ 

einergencies 
protect   the    people's   deposits   in   savings   banks 

or  life  insurance  companies,   as  against   private 


86  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  II.  fraud  or  mismanagement  ?  If  so,  we  need  not 
make  haste  to  add  vast  new  financial  functions 
to  our  state  or  national  governments.  Can 
aroused  public  opinion,  supporting  new  laws  for 
government  supervision,  rid  the  packing  industry 
of  the  abuses  about  which  there  has  been  so  much 
sensation  ?  Then  the  remedies  are  at  hand,  and 
there  is  strength  enough  in  our  existing  social 
structure  to  apply  them. 

Food  Bill  There  has  been  enacted  into  law  at  Washing- 

^^  "'^  ton  an  elaborate  measure  which  had  been  long 

illustration 

pending,  known  as  the  "Pure  Food  Bill."  This 
grew  out  of  the  conditions  under  which  a  great 
variety  of  articles  that  enter  into  the  general  supply 
of  food  and  medicines  are  now  manufactured  on 
a  large  scale  and  distributed  through  the  channels 
of  interstate  commerce.  Our  advance  in  scien- 
tific knowledge  and  our  more  fastidious  standards 
of  living  require  that  such  food  products  should 
be  honest  from  the  commercial  standpoint  and 
wholesome  from  that  of  sanitary  tests.  It  is  not 
that  matters  are  at  so  bad  a  pass  in  this  country, 
but  that  we  ought  to  expect  positive  improvement. 
The  pack-         In    Europe    the    public    abattoirs    have    done 

tng-house      ^wav  with    thousands  of   small  slaughterhouses, 
question 

and  the  gain  has  been  almost  incalculable.     With 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  87 

us,  the  great  packing  houses,  with  their  refrigera-  chap.  ii. 
tor  car  lines  and  their  cold  storage  plants  every- 
where, have  also  abohshed  local  slaughterhouses 
by  the  tens  of  thousands,  —  and  in  spite  of  all 
that  has  ever  been  brought  to  light,  I  assert  that  Sanitary 
the  packing-house  system  is  incalculably  more  'P^^^^^^^ 
sanitary,  in  the  main,  than  the  old  local  slaughter- 
houses, with  their  supply  of  uninspected  animals 
and  their  total  ignorance  of  the  first  elements  of 
cleanliness  or  health  rules  in  the  methods  they 
employed.  The  small  slaughterhouses,  as  a  vast 
system,  could  hardly  have  been  reformed;  but 
the  large  packing  houses  can  be  made  models  of 
wholesomeness,  with  positive  profit  to  all  branches 
of  industry  concerned  in  providing  the  country's 
food  supply. 

As  respects  the  articles  with  which  the  Pure  Principles 

Food  Bill  is  concerned,  the  commercial  is  more  "-^  ^"'"^ 

food  laws 

important  than  the  health  standpoint.  Oleo- 
margarine is  not,  as  a  rule,  unhealthy;  but  it  is 
commercially  wrong  to  sell  it  as  butter.  Glucose 
may  be  a  nutritious  food  product,  but  to  sell 
glucose  for  honey  or  maple  sugar  or  jam,  or  any 
one  of  a  dozen  other  articles,  is  not  defensible. 
Pulverized  cocoanut  shells  taken  in  small  quan- 
tities   are    not    harmful,    yet    they    should     not 


88 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  11. 


Protection 
of  honest 
trade 


Still 
room  for 
private 
energy 


constitute  four  fifths  of  what  the  people  buy  under 
the  name  of  pepper.  The  chicory  and  the  cereals 
which  make  up  the  bulk  of  so  much  of  the  coffee 
that  is  sold  ready  for  use,  do  not  undermine  the 
human  constitution;  yet  they  certainly  do  tend 
to  undermine  the  legitimate  trade  in  coffee.  The 
government  can  do  a  good  deal  to  stop  these 
dishonest  practices,  for  the  benefit  of  consumers 
on  the  one  hand  and  for  the  protection  and  pros- 
perity of  the  honest  producer  on  the  other. 

Such  are  some  of  the  points  at  which  govern- 
ment touches  the  current  economic  life.  This 
necessary  assertion  of  the  power  of  government 
and  law  only  gives  the  better  chance  for  the  proper 
play  of  individual  energy  and  initiative  in  the 
economic  field.  To  my  mind,  the  old,  unre- 
strained forces  of  competition  in  business  were 
wasteful;  and  the  growth  of  comparatively  non- 
competitive methods  had  in  it  place  and  timeli- 
ness. At  one  time  the  competitive  system  seemed 
beyond  remedy  in  its  reckless  misuse  of  economic 
force.  Then  the  trust  system  arose  with  its 
tendency  toward  abuses  of  monopoly  power. 
And  in  turn  the  appeal  of  many  men  is  to  the 
government,  with  a  socialistic  programme,  to 
give  the  final  cure. 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  89 

But  we  shall  manage  to  keep  place  for  private       chap.  ii. 
initiative  and  a  good  deal  of  competitive  activity   j^^g  ^^^^ 

in  the  field  of  wealth  production,  while  keeping  ^^"^^  '^S 

,  .  -111.-  1     •      advance 

the  great  corporations,  with  pubhcity  as  to  their 

methods  and  a  diffused  ownership  of  their  shares 
of  stock.  At  the  same  time  we  shall  use  govern- 
mental authority  freely  to  regulate  economic 
forces,  and  we  shall  aim  to  make  government 
so  clean  and  efficient  that  we  might,  if  necessary 
in  the  future,  intrust  it  with  enlarged  business 
functions. 

Some  of  us  can  readily  remember  a  time  when  Municipal 

.1  ,.  p  1  T      r  u-  franchises 

tiie  very  conception  or  a  pubnc  irancriise  as  a  "^ 

valuable  municipal  asset  was  a  strange  and  un- 
familiar one  to  our  citizens.  Municipal  govern- 
ments would  from  time  to  time  give  away  long- 
term  monopoly  privileges  to  gas  companies, 
street  railroad  companies,  electric  light  companies 
and  so  on,  without  any  serious  criticism  directed 
against  them,  and  with  apparently  no  appreciation 
on  the  part  of  any  citizen  that  private  wealth 
was  being  built  up  at  the  public  cost  and  disad- 
vantage. Here,  again,  we  have  come  to  see  a 
new  light,  and  we  see  it  clearly. 

We  do  not  as  yet  manage  these  things  perfectly 
in  our  cities  and    towns,  but  the    old   days   of 


90 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 


A  system 
to  be 
reformed 


wanton  disregard  of  the  public  right  and  the 
general  welfare  are  gone  forever.  It  is  one  thing 
to  protect  private  initiative  in  business  affairs, 
and  it  is  quite  another  thing  to  permit  or  foster 
abuses  that  enrich  one  man  or  set  of  men  at  the 
expense  of  the  community. 

My  point  is  that  the  chief  fault  has  belonged, 
not  to  the  men  who  have  gained  great  fortunes 
through  the  opportunities  afforded  by  our  economic 
system,  but  to  the  transitional  period  through 
which  we  have  been  living.  And  the  thing  we 
have  now  to  deal  with  is  not  the  great  fortunes 
or  the  men  who  hold  them,  in  so  far  as  their  pos- 
session is  legally  beyond  assault,  but  the  system 
itself,  in  those  parts  of  it  which  have  been  used 
to  the  public  detriment.  The  principles  are  now 
clear,  and  what  we  have  to  do  is  to  apply  them. 
It  is  the  failure  to  see  these  principles,  or  else  the 
failure  to  believe  that  we  can  apply  the  remedies 
that  is  driving  men  to  the  socialistic  extreme. 
The  course  of  recent  events  would  seem  to  prove 
the  opposite  of  the  socialistic  argument  and  to 
show  that  we  have  ample  capacity  for  economic 
reform  along  the  line  of  well-established  doctrines. 

I  have  not  sought  to  extol  wealth  or  economic 
force  in  any  materialistic  spirit.     Back  of  all  effi- 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  91 

cient  human  effort  lie  character  and  the  behef  in       chap.  ii. 
things  of  the  mind  and  spirit.     But  I  have  tried 
to  set  forth  some  of  the  conditions  under  which 
the  young  men  of  to-day  must  do  their  work  for 
the   further   promotion   of   our   best   civiHzation. 
I  would  have  the  business  man   professionalize   The  true 
his  calling  by  understanding  how  serious  are  his  j^usiness 
responsibilities  in  what  is  preeminently  the  busi- 
ness man's  age.     Work  done  in  the  right  spirit, 
with  science  and  knowledge  to  guide  it,  and  with 
a  sincere  desire  for  the  public  welfare,  can  be 
made    of    absorbing    interest.     And    it    matters, 
therefore,    comparatively    little    what    particular 
pursuit  a  young  man  chooses  in  life,  if  only  he  , 
makes  honest  effort,  and  tries  to  give  the  best 
that  is  in  him  to  the  service  of  his  own  day  and 
generation. 

In  our  great  Southern  states,  we  have  many  The 
difficulties  and  perplexities  to  face  in  the  onward  l^^^^^ty 
course  of  our  social  and  political  hfe.  But  we 
can  make  no  mistake  in  turning  our  best  energies 
to  the  development  of  our  vast  latent  resources, 
as  a  foundation  for  the  great  structure  of  civili- 
zation we  mean  to  build  in  that  beautiful  and 
highly  favored  portion  of  the  earth.  With  their 
own  trained  men,  and  their  own  capital,  they  must 


92 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 


The 

underlying 

ideals 


work  out  amazing  transformations  along  the 
line  of  many  things  already  begun.  When  the 
capital  invested  in  farms  and  mines  and  furnaces 
and  factories  begins  to  yield  the  returns  we  may 
confidently  expect,  let  us  not  forget  that  capital 
invested  in  education  is  the  most  important  of  all, 
because  it  produces  the  trained  minds  and  scien- 
tific aptitudes  necessary  for  further  progress. 

Furthermore,  there  can  be  no  great  progress  in 
purely  economic  directions  without  high  ideals 
to  inspire  effort  and  high  motives  looking  toward 
the  use  of  economic  results. 


OUR  LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF 

PIONEERS 


CHAPTER  III 

OUR    LEGACY    FROM   A    CENTURY    OF 
PIONEERS 

Certain  aspects  of  our  American  life  and 
society,  that  are  to  be  considered  in  the  pages 
that  follow,  should  remind  us  of  the  fact  that  we 
are  now  a  mature  country.  This  mav  not  seem  A  mature 
a  novel  suggestion,  yet  the  bearings  of  it  have 
scarcely  been  recognized  by  any  element  or  group 
of  our  leaders  in  opinion  or  in  statecraft.  We  have 
been  so  long  accustomed  to  regard  ourselves  as  a 
young  country  and  a  pioneering  country,  that 
we  have  not  attained  unto  the  recognition,  as  a 
matter  of  national  consciousness,  of  tlie  meaning 
in  a  synthetic,  full  way  of  a  great  number  of  facts 
which  we  recognize  in  their  separate  aspects. 

Every  one  knows,  for  example,  that  we  now  Our 

make  far  more  products  of  iron  and  steel  each    . 

r  171  certain 

year  than  any  other  nation;  that  our  agricultural  things 
output  is  more  extensive  than  tliat  of  other  lands ; 

that  the  mileage  of  our  railroads  far  exceeds  that 

95 


96 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  III. 


Meaning 
of  the 
transition 


of  any  European  country ;  that  our  population  is 
larger  than  that  of  any  other  nation  of  white 
men  excepting  Russia;  that  our  educational 
system  is  more  extensive  and  widely  diffused 
than  that  of  any  other  large  nation,  and  that  in 
many  material  regards,  and  in  some  intellectual 
and  moral  aspects,  ours  appears  to  be  the  most 
highly  favored  of  modern  countries. 

These  things,  indeed,  might  all  be  true;  and 
yet  such  might  be  our  extent  of  area  and  of  unde- 
veloped resources,  and  such  might  be  many  other 
practical  conditions,  that  it  could  still  be  said  that 
we  were,  relatively  speaking,  in  the  pioneering 
stage  of  our  progress  and  our  civilization.  And 
here  let  me  say  that  I  do  not  for  a  moment  mean 
to  imply  that  the  relative  maturity  which  I  affirm 
is  in  any  manner  to  be  thought  of  as  a  stagnant  or 
passive  or  unchanging  condition,  —  for  just  the 
contrary  of  this  is  what  I  think  to  be  true. 

The  stages  of  development  upon  which  we 
have  now  entered  in  our  mature  national  period 
are  more  complex  and  more  profound  than  those 
of  the  pioneering  epoch,  and  they  involve  a  higher 
degree  of  activity  in  every  sense  of  the  word. 
It  would  be  inaccurate,  and  therefore  useless,  to 
fix  any  exact  date  as  marking  the  transition  from 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  97 

one  period  to  another  in  the  history  of  civilization      chap.  hi. 
in  any  country  whatsoever.     We  may  say,  if  we   y^^g  nxina 

choose,  that  our  pioneer  period  ended  with  the  of  our 
^  ...  .  national 

opanish    War,   or   with  the   nuieteenth   century,   periods 

There  are  locaHties,  assuredly,  in  which  it  has  not 

yet  come  to  its  end.     But  I  am  speaking  in  broad 

and  general  terms.     The  colonizing  period  had 

begun  with  the  first  settlements,  that  of  Virginia 

about  three  hundred  years  ago,  of  Massachusetts 

a  little  later,  and  of  North  Carolina  in  a  scattered 

fashion   along  its  tidewater  frontage   at '  a  time 

almost  as  early.     This  colonial  period  we  regard 

conveniently  as  having  ended  with  the  attainment 

of  independence  by  the  colonies  and  their  federal 

union. 

So  slight  had  been  the  westward  movement,   The 

before  the  Revolutionary  War,  of  the  pathfinders  , 

''  ^  epoch 

and  wilderness  hunters  like  Daniel  Boone,  that 
the  exceptions  only  mark  the  main  fact  that  it 
was  not  until  well  after  the  war  that  what  we  may 
call  the  pioneering  period  had  fairly  set  in.  Almost 
the  entire  population  of  the  United  States  in  the 
Colonial  and  Revolutionary  period  dwelt  within 
easy  access  to  the  seaboard  or  to  tidal  streams. 
It  was  after  that  period  that  the  movement 
toward  the  West  took  on  so  great  a  volume  and 


98 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  III. 


The 

century  of 
pioneering 


The 

westward 

spread 

of  the 

American 

family 


SO  remarkable  a  character  from  the  standpoint 
of  American  history  and  of  the  making  of  our 
national   life. 

If  you  would  know  your  own  country  in  its 
most  essential  things,  you  must  study  the  move- 
ment by  which  the  descendants  of  our  old,  origi- 
nal commonwealths  spread  themselves  across  the 
continent  through  a  period  of  a  hundred  years 
or  more,  beginning,  let  us  say,  about  1785.  Ken- 
tucky was  admitted  to  the  Union  in  1792,  Ten- 
nessee in  1796,  and  Ohio  in  1803.  Northern 
New  England,  western  New  York,  western  Penn- 
sylvania, and  the  western  valleys  of  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina  were  undergoing  pioneer  develop- 
ment in  this  same  period.  Indiana  and  Illinois 
in  the  North,  and  Mississippi  and  Alabama  in 
the  South,  came  into  the  Union  in  the  period 
from  1816  to  1819,  then  Maine  followed  in  1820, 
and  Missouri  in  1821.  Louisiana,  meanwhile, 
had  been  brought  into  the  Union  in  1812  under 
obligations  incurred  in  the  purchase  from  France 
of  the  great  central  tract  of  the  country.  These 
are  familiar  dates,  and  I  mention  them  only  as 
incidental  to  the  endeavor  to  impress  upon  your 
minds  the  marvelous  spread  of  the  American  fam- 
ily away  from  the  seaboard  to  the  Appalachian 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  99 

valleys  and  through  the  mountain  gaps  to  the  chap.  m. 
great  timber  lands  of  Kentucky,  Ohio,  and  Indi- 
ana, and  to  the  warm  alluvial  soils  of  Alabama 
and  Mississippi.  These  men  and  women  not 
only  founded  new  communities  beyond  their 
home  states,  and  so  brought  new  states  into  the  Making 

71611) 

Union,  but  they  also  developed  the  interior  and     ,  , 
western  parts  of   the   states  which    formed   the 
original  group. 

While  this  first  great  Western  movement  was 
mostly  made  up  of  Revolutionary  soldiers,  or  the 
descendants  of  those  who  had  belonged  to  the 
American  colonial  period,  there  also  came  a  wel- 
come and  important  stream  —  though  not  a 
vast  one  —  of  men  from  the  British  Isles,  includ- 
ing the  Scotch-Irish,  who  have  played  so  impor- 
tant a  part  in  the  making  of  the  Appalachian 
region  and  the  states  contiguous  to  it.  And  the 
pioneers  might  be  said  faii-ly  to  have  laid  a  domi- 
nating hand  upon  the  affairs  of  the  whole  country, 
when  Andrew  Jackson  had  become  President,  or  The 
certainly  after  we  had  fought  the  Mexican  War,  ,,„,„„ 
and  had  brought  Missouri,  Arkansas,  and  Michi- 
gan into  the  Union,  with  Iowa  and  Wisconsin 
following  Texas.  The  admission  of  most  of  these 
states  came  in  a  very  early  stage  of  their  settle- 


100 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  III. 


Up  to  the 
Civil  War 


Subduing 
the  wilder- 
ness — 
1790^0 
1850 


ment,  and  the  pioneer  process  of  felling  the  for- 
ests, creating  farmsteads,  building  roads  and 
towns,  and  establishing  institutions,  was  still  very 
far  from  complete  when  the  era  of  railroad  build- 
ing had  begun  and  when  there  was  reached  in 
our  history  the  momentous  period  of  the  great 
Civil   War. 

Let  me  say  a  few  words  about  the  pioneers  who 
had  made  the  country  as  it  was  before  1860,  and 
then  something  about  that  amazing  outburst  of 
energy  —  transmuted  into  material  progress  — 
that  exhibited  itself  through  the  thirty  or  forty 
years  after  the  North  and  South  laid  down  their 
arms  and  gave  themselves  once  more  to  the  task 
of  making  the  country  great. 

In  all  history  we  can  discover  the  records  of  no 
better  or  braver  people  than  the  men  and  women 
who  subdued  the  American  wilderness  in  the 
period  from  1790  to  1850.  They  prepared  it  to 
be  the  home  of  millions  of  people  speaking  the 
same  language  and  possessing  the  same  kind  of 
civilization,  and  they  left  to  America  a  noble 
heritage  of  hope,  courage,  and  faith.  Our  ances- 
tors beyond  the  sea,  whether  from  England, 
Scotland,  Ireland,  Wales,  Germany,  or  whatever 
other  European  land,  may  have  been  of  humble 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  101 

origin,   or  they  may  have  been  of  educated   or     chap.  hi. 
even    of    aristocratic    Hneage.     We    are    willing 
indeed  to  know  anything  about  them  that  we 
can  find  out. 

But,  after   all,    for   Americans   it   will  always   The 

suffice  to  trace  their  ancestry  back  to  the  earliest   ,. 

''  lineage 

of  their  forefathers  who  crossed  the  seas  and  cast 
in  their  lot  with  the  makers  of  this  new  world. 
Very  many,  perhaps  a  majority,  of  the  English  no- 
bility do  not  record  their  pedigree  for  more  than 
two  or  three  centuries.  We,  on  the  other  hand, 
have  a  great  population  in  this  country  of  men 
and  women  who  can  clearly  trace  their  descent 
from  ancestors  who  had  a  part  in  creating  our 
Eastern  colonies  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago. 

Some  of  these  people,  of  this  lineage  so  credit-   The 
able,  and  for  which  they  are  so  justly  grateful,  ^^P°"*^^" 
still  remain,  as  here  in  North  Carolina,  in  the  families 
old  seaboard  states.     But  the  vast   majority  of 
them  are  scattered  all  the  way  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  from  the  Great  Lakes 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.     This  again  is  in  itself  a 
fact  familiar  to  you,  yet  have  you  fully  reahzed 
its  significance  ?     What  other  country  can  you 
find  that  has  been  made  in  the  same  way,  by  the 
spread    of    famihes    across    a    vast    unoccupied 


102 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  III. 


Founders 


territory,  in  such  a  manner  that  they  have  never 
lost  their  sense  of  kinship,  and  have  carried  with 
them  all  their  ideas  and  all  that  is  essential  in  the 
institutions  that  grow  out  of  their  associated  life. 
Where  to-day  are  the  sons  of  North  Carohna  ? 

Of  C07777D OT)  —     — 

,.,  While   the    movements   of   migration   have   been 

mainly  along  parallel  lines  westward,  there  has 
also  been  a  fanlike  radiation;  and  the  sons  of 
North  Carolina,  as  of  Virginia,  have  helped  to 
make  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Mississippi, 
Missouri,  Arkansas,  and  Texas  notably,  while 
they  have  helped  also  in  lesser  degree  to  make 
many  other  states.  And  few  of  them  or  their 
descendants  have  ever  forgotten  the  family  begin- 
nings in  the  old  home  state. 

Thus,  one  of  my  own  great-grandfathers,  as  a 
young  man  after  the  Revolutionary  War,  sold 
his  land  in  North  Carolina  and  crossed  the  moun- 
tains to  Kentucky.  Subsequently  he  made  one 
more  advance  and  passed  over  the  Ohio  River  to 
become  one  of  the  pioneers  in  the  settlement  of 
the  Buckeye  state.  To  illustrate  in  this  personal 
way  the  movement  of  population  in  that  period, 
another  great-grandfather  from  the  line  between 
Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  passed  down  the 
Ohio  River  and  also  settled  in  Kentucky,  subse- 


Personal 
illustra- 
tions 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  103 

quently  going  in  like  manner  to  Ohio.     At  just      chap.  hi. 
that    time    the    men    of    eastern    Massachusetts 
were    moving    northward    to    develop    northern 
New  England,  westward  to  northern  and  west- 
ern New  York,  subsequently  to  northern  Ohio, 
and  so  on  across  the  northwestern  states,  where 
New  England  influence  became  so  predominant. 
Of  these  sturdy  people  from  New  England  who 
did  so  much  for  the  making  of  the  country  north  North  and 
of  the  40th  parallel  of  latitude,  the  same  thing  can  ^?^    Z*^ 
be  said  as  of  the  men  of  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,   parallel 
Virginia,  and  the   Carolinas  who  developed  the 
country  south  of  the  40th  parallel.     They  spread 
across    the    country,    recognizing    themselves    as 
belonging  to  one  great  American  family. 

Thus  there  are  some  of  us  whose  own  kith  and  Kinship 

kin  have  so  scattered  and  advanced  in  the  pioneer-       ^ .      ,  .^ 

^  nationality 

ing  process  that  relatives  in  some  degree  are 
known  and  recognized  in  perhaps  twenty  states 
of  the  Union,  from  the  Eastern  seaboard  all  the 
way  to  California.  And  this  has  had  to  do,  more 
than  almost  any  other  one  thing,  with  the  solidarity 
of  the  American  people.  We  know  how  brightly 
burned  the  early  lights  of  aspiration  and  intelli- 
gence and  character  in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas, 
as  well  as  in  the  Middle  States;    and  we  know 


104 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  III. 


Trans- 
plantation 
of  leaders 


A  com- 
parison 
with 

European 
nations 


that  Tocqueville  spoke  justly  when  he  referred  to 
the  far  shining  of  the  beacon  of  New  England's 
enlightenment.    • 

Yet  the  country  became  great  not  by  the  mere 
radiation  of  influence  from  the  older  centers,  but 
by  the  actual  transplantation  of  the  men  and 
women  who  embodied  the  best  of  our  early  ideals, 
and  who  gave  added  strength  and  vigor  to  what 
was  characteristic  of  America  in  the  healthful 
though  often  dangerous  and  painful  experiences 
of  the  subduing  of  the  wilderness  and  the  making 
of  new  communities. 

Mark  the  difference  in  this  regard  between 
our  American  population  and  that  of  any  other 
country.  England  is  not  large  in  area,  and  its 
people  are  generally  regarded  as  homogeneous 
in  their  insularity.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  the 
populations  of  the  different  parts  of  England  are 
scarcely  at  all  acquainted  in  any  other  part.  Thus 
the  Yorkshire  man  would  only  by  the  rarest 
chance  have  a  relative  living  in  Kent  or  Cornwall. 
The  intimacy  between  North  Carolina  and  Mis- 
souri, for  example,  is  incomparably  greater  than 
that  between  one  part  of  England  and  another 
part.  In  like  manner  the  people  of  the  north  of 
France  know  very  little  of  those  of  the  south  of 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  105 

France,  or  even  of  those  living  in  districts  not  at      chap.  hi. 
all  remote.     Exactly  the  same  thing  is  true  of 
Italv  and   Gernianv,   and   it  is  characteristic  of 
almost    every    other    European    land.     As    com- 
pared with  other  countries,   we  in  America  are   Americans 
i>         11         1         1     i>  I        1  literally  a 

literally  a  band  ot  brothers,  spread  to  the  number  ijrotherhood 

of  millions  upon  millions  across  a  vast  continent, 

and  our  characteristics  have  been  formed   very 

largely   in   contact   with   the   problems   we   have 

had  to  solve  in  this  transcontinental  march  of 

subjugation. 

All  honor  to  the  strong  men  and  brave  women   The 

who  floated   down  the   rivers    on    flatboats    and     ,,,     ,,. 

of  the  Mis- 

crossed  the  mountain  passes  with  ox  teams  and  sissippi 
Conestoga  wagons.  While  they  were  not  all  equally 
fortunate,  most  of  them  had  the  wisdom  and 
good  judgment  to  build  their  cabins  and  make 
their  abiding  places  where  the  soil  was  rich,  the 
rainfall  equable,  the  climate  wholesome,  and  the 
geographical  situation  certain  to  give  permanence 
and  continuity  to  the  work  of  their  hands.  When 
they  cleared  the  valley  lands,  they  knew  that  the 
conditions  were  such  as  to  give  long  and  abiding 
prosperity  to  their  new  neighborhoods  and  to 
justify  their  descendants  in  remaining  and  in 
keeping  alive  the  memories  and  traditions  of  the 


106  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  III.      pioneers  of  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. 

Their  They  were  large-minded  people,  who  from  the 

rai  s  an  very  first  were  determined  to  possess  good  churches, 
good  schools,  and  a  home  life  made  the  more 
dignified  and  refined  by  good  houses  and  sub- 
stantial improvements.  They  were  people  of 
high  ideals  and  unbounded  self-respect.  Surely 
Nature  was  lavish  in  her  gifts  to  that  beautiful, 
productive  region  that  lies  west  of  the  Alleghanies 
and  south  of  the  Great  Lakes. 

There  are,  indeed,  other  fair  and  rich  countries, 
some  of  them  fairer  and  richer  than  this,  that  lie 
desolate  to-day  because  they  have  lacked  the  right 
kind  of  men.  They  have  needed  but  ha.ve  not 
found  men  with  brawn  and  brain  and  heart  to 
wrest  wealth  from  the  soil,  to  utilize  the  forces 
and  bounties  of  Nature,  and  to  plant  those  seeds 
of  social  life  and  of  religious  and  political  institu- 
tions that  count  for  more,  after  all,  than  fields  of 
waving  corn  and  golden  grain. 

Life  in  the       So  much  for  the  two  generations  of  frontiersmen 

.   .  who  were  creating  commonwealths  between  the 

Alleghanies  and  the  Mississippi  River  in  the  first 

half  of  the  nineteenth  century.     They  had,  indeed, 

their  peculiarities  and  their  crudities.     Read,  if 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  107 

you  please,  with  due  amusement,  Mrs.  Trollope's      chap.  hi. 

"  Domestic  Manners  of  the  Americans,"  Dickens's 

"American   Notes"   and   his   "INIartin   Chuzzle- 

wit,"    Baldwin's    "Flush    Times    in    Alabama"; 

but  these  pictures  of  pioneer  times  in  the  West  and 

South  tell  only  a  little  part  of  the  story.     It  was 

surpassingly    wonderful,    if   the    full   truth   were 

known,  how  the  best  ideals  of  life  were  cherished, 

maintained,  and  transmitted  in  thousands  of  log 

cabins  west  of  the  Alleghanies, 

Then  came  the  decade  before  the  Civil  War,    The 

of  gathering  political  clouds,  of  financial  disaster,   '^'^^^^3 
^  *=  ^  ^  _  of  the  war 

and  of  moral  and  social  reaction.  And  then  the 
great  convulsion  and  struggle,  born  of  a  period 
when  the  harsh  voices  of  passion  and  wrath  were 
too  loud  for  the  gentler  counsels  of  brotherhood 
and  forbearance.  I  have  no  further  word  about 
that  period,  excepting  such  as  relates  to  the  influ- 
ence it  had  upon  the  later  pioneering  develop- 
ment of  the  country. 

The  war  destroyed  vast  resources  and  sacrificed   Masterful- 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  brave  men,  but  it  also         ,       , 

awakened 

awakened    such    masterfulness,    such    power    of  by  the 
achievement,  in  its  survivors  —  and  these  were  ^°^J^^^' 
the  great  majority  of  those  who  participated  — 
as  the  world  has  never  seen  and  may  never  again 


108 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  in.  experience.  Remember  that  the  war  was  fought 
on  both  sides  for  the  most  part  by  very  young 
men.  The  colleges  in  the  South  were  closed 
because  the  students  all  went  to  the  war.  I  am 
a  graduate  of  a  Northern  college  that  also  closed 
because  every  student  in  it  went  to  the  front. 

Develop-  When  the  war  was  ended  there  were  on  both 

ment  of  per-      .,  •  i         u      £  u   j?  u    j 

,  ,  sides  maior-o-enerals  who  nve  years   beiore  had 

sonal  force  jo  ^ 

scarcely  entered  upon  the  careers  of  men.  There 
were  in  fact  hundreds  of  men  on  both  sides  who 
had  commanded  brigades  or  full  regiments,  yet 
who  were  at  the  end  of  the  five  years'  struggle 
still  mere  striplings  in  their  twenties.  But  they 
had  seen  such  stern  and  terrible  reality  —  they 
had  faced  danger,  carried  responsibility,  and 
exercised  power  under  such  circumstances  — 
that  they  could  not  by  any  chance  relapse  to  the 
mental  stature  of  ordinary,  inexperienced  men. 
They  must  perforce  do  great  things.  Just  as 
the  Revolutionary  War  and  the  War  of  1812 
had  built  up  a  generation  of  masterful  men,  who 
settled  the  eastern  half  of  the  Mississippi  Valley, 
so  the  events  of  the  Civil  War  awakened  in  the 
sons  and  grandsons  of  those  men,  and  of  their 
kinsfolk  of  the  eastern  seaboard  as  well,  a  power 
which  was  bound  to  find  expression  in  some  great 


Our  men 

of  power 
after  the 
war 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  109 

history-making  processes.     If  we  had  been  essen-      chap.  in. 

tially  a  mihtary  nation,  these   men  might  have 

sought  conquest  to  the  northward  in  view  of  our 

claims  against   England,   and   to  the   southward 

under   pretext   of  the   expulsion  of   French  and 

Austrian  invaders  and  usurpers.     But  the  armies 

were  disbanded,  and  the  million  or  two  of  young 

men  who  had  been  tried  in  the  fiery  furnace  of 

war  set  about  making  careers  for  themselves  in  a 

land  where  swords  were  beaten  into  plowshares. 

Then  followed  for  two  or  three  decades  the  How  they 
great  movement  west  of  the  Mississippi.  The  ''P''^'^^^^ 
men  who  had  fought  in  the  war  turned  their  West 
engineering  and  organizing  and  directive  talent 
to  the  building  of  a  vast  network  of  railways,  to 
the  opening  of  mines,  and  to  the  exploitation  of 
forests.  They  became  the  leaders  in  our  political 
life,  the  captains  of  our  industry,  and  the  Napo- 
leons of  our  finance.  They  brought  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  millions  of  dollars  of  capital  from 
Europe  to  aid  in  the  development  of  the  virgin 
West.  Wlicre  the  prairie  grass  was  growing  and 
the  buffalo  herds  were  flourishing,  they  planted 
the  wheat  and  the  corn  and  the  cotton.  They 
found  a  vast  export  market  for  American  grain 
and  fiber  and  meat,  and  they  built  high,  and  kept 


110 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  III. 

Their 
industry 
and  their 
politics 


They  built 
the  rail- 
roads 


They  im- 
ported 
foreign 
labor 


high,  the  protective-tariff  wall  in  order  that  they 
might  create  diversified  manufactures  and  com- 
mercial centers  in  our  own  country  to  consume 
the  food  products  and  raw  materials  of  the  agri- 
cultural West  and  South.  They  were  not  always 
refined  in  their  methods ;  their  materialism  was 
crude  and  insatiate;  but  they  did  wonderful 
things  and  they  left  us  many  a  perplexing  legacy 
as  a  result  of  their  eagerness  and  —  sometimes 
—  their  lack  of  scruples.  They  invented  a  new 
way  to  develop  the  Western  country,  pushing  their 
railroads  far  beyond  the  frontier  line,  then  bring- 
ing the  population  to  settle  upon  the  imperial 
grants  of  land  they  had  obtained  from  the  gov- 
ernment. 

While  our  American  boys  were  pushing  west 
to  occupy  the  rich,  virgin  soil  and  grow  up  with 
the  country,  millions  of  immigrants  were  per- 
suaded to  come  from  Europe,  settle  on  the  land, 
help  build  the  railroads,  work  in  the  mines,  and 
provide  labor  for  the  factory  towns.  To  hasten 
the  development  of  the  Pacific  coast,  Chinese  la- 
borers were  brought  in  by  the  scores  of  thousands. 
And  so  the  great  movement  went  on  until  we 
discovered,  not  so  long  ago,  that  the  so-called 
Western  frontier  of  Indians  and  cowboys,  and  the 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  111 

thin  edge  of  pioneer  advance,  had  disappeared.      chap.  hi. 

Whether   by   honest    settlement    or    whether    by   j<^ 

trickery  and  fraud,  all  of  Uncle  Sam's  good  farm  abolished 

the  fron- 
lands  had   been   made   over  to  private   owners.  ^^^ 

By  the  force  of  economic  conditions,  farm  lands 

west  of  the  Mississippi  River  had  become  more 

valuable  than  those  of  Ohio  or  western  New  York, 

or  of  Pennsylvania  or  Maryland.     The  new  West   The  nexo 

West 
had   been   built   up   by   money   borrowed   from  ^^j^^^^^^ 

Europe  and  the  Eastern  states.  We  suddenly  financial 
awakened  to  the  fact  that  this  new  West  had  ^^^^^ 
become  rich  and  had  paid  off  Europe  and  the 
Eastern  states,  and  was  able  not  only  to  capitalize 
its  own  further  development  for  itself  in  the  main, 
but  was  from  time  to  time  sending  money,  by 
way  of  Chicago  and  St.  Louis,  to  New  York  to 
support  the  general  money  market  and  the  opera- 
tions of  so-called  high  finance. 

When  the  West  was  poor  and  struggling  and  Agrarian 
absolutely  dependent  upon  the  railroads,  there  *  ^^^^  ^* 
were  long  and  stubborn  political  agitations  of  an 
agrarian  character,  directed  against  the  tyranny  of 
the  corporations  of  transport  and  supply.  And 
there  were  also  formidable  political  movements 
having  to  do  with  money  and  the  standards  of 
value  growing  out  of  the  fact  that  the  West  was 


112 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  III. 

How  they 

were 

mitigated 


Personal 
character 
as  result- 
ing from 
'pioneering 
conditions 


The  typical 

American 

boy 


prevalently  a  debtor  region  and  would  not  tolerate 
an  appreciating  standard  of  value.  But  when 
the  West  had  paid  off  its  mortgages  and  had 
accumulated  its  own  capital,  these  phases  of  social 
and  political  agitation  belonging  to  the  pioneer 
period  had  a  tendency  to  disappear. 

All  the  conditions  of  American  pioneering  were 
such  as  to  create  a  wonderful  spirit  of  individuality, 
independence,  and  self-direction  in  the  average 
man.  Never  in  the  world  has  there  been  anything 
to  equal  this  development  of  personality,  and 
this  capacity  for  private  and  individual  initiative. 
And  I  must  dwell  upon  this  point  because  it  is 
at  the  very  root  of  the  problems  that  we  have 
to  deal  with,  —  now  that  we  have  completed  the 
pioneering  stage  and  entered  upon  the  next  stage, 
—  that  of  a  buoyant,  progressive  maturity. 

Several  conditions  were  in  conjunction  to  give 
to  Americans  during  the  past  forty  years  immense 
capacity  for  self-direction  and  individual  achieve- 
ment. First,  there  was  the  traditional  spirit 
born  of  early  conditions  and  the  Revolutionary 
contest;  second,  there  was  the  freedom  begotten 
of  contact  with  Nature  on  a  great  scale  in  the 
subduing  of  a  continent.  The  average  American 
boy  had  grown  up  with  a  gun  in  his  hand,  and 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  113 

he  knew  the  woods  and  the  native  animals.  He  chap.  in. 
had  learned  to  swim  his  horse  across  swollen 
rivers,  and  to  face  all  sorts  of  practical  emer- 
gencies. Furthermore,  he  had  developed  under  Freedom  of 
conditions  of  entire  political  and  family  freedom, 
and  still  further,  he  had  grown  up  in  a  land 
naturally  bountiful,  where  there  was  ample  incen- 
tive to  effort,  and  where  there  did  not  exist  any 
laws  or  conditions  which  might  dishearten  the 
individual  man  because  tending  to  deprive  him 
of  the  fruits  of  his  labor. 

Furthermore,  although  later  we  carried  on  our  Continental 
industry  and  commerce  under  conditions  of  a  ^^^^ 
tariff  that  somewhat  discouraged  traffic  with  the 
older  countries  of  Europe,  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  we  maintained  absolute  free  trade  among  our- 
selves. Thus,  although  protectionists  as  against 
the  rest  of  the  world,  we  were  free  traders  over 
a  larger  contiguous  area  of  developing  country, 
and  were  in  actual  practice  living  under  freer 
conditions  for  the  large  development  of  business, 
than  any  other  people  in  the  world. 

Thus  it  was  that  the  later  pioneer  period  after  How  the 
the  war,  which  built  the  transcontinental  railroads,  ^^^^^^^^ 
created  the  agricultural  West,  developed  the  iron  arose 
and   steel   production   and   the  textile  industries. 


114 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  III. 


Some 
problems 
left  un- 
solved 


No  longer 
a  west- 
ward 
migration 


afforded  such  opportunities  for  the  acquisition  of 
wealth  as  had  never  before  been  known.  Great 
fortunes  began  to  emerge,  because  opportunities 
were  continental  rather  than  parochial.  The 
private  career  in  that  materialistic  age  offered 
inducements  so  far  beyond  any  that  a  public 
career  could  hold  out  to  ambitious  men,  that 
private  initiative  and  private  interest  became 
dominant.  Governmental  and  public  activity 
and  interest  became  relatively  weak  and  neglected. 

And  so  the  pioneer  period  having  ended,  we 
are  left  with  some  profound  social  and  economic 
problems  which  may  in  their  solving  perplex 
us,  but  which  need  cause  us  no  deep-seated  anxi- 
ety, certainly  no  pessimistic  foreboding.  Let  us 
look  at  some  of  the  conditions  we  find  existing  in 
the  country,  and  some  of  the  tendencies  of  the 
new  period. 

First,  with  respect  to  conditions  of  population: 
The  old  hives  east  of  the  Alleghanies  no  longer 
send  their  sturdy  sons  westward  to  identify  them- 
selves with  new  communities.  The  tendency  has 
become  almost  too  slight  to  be  discernible.  Neither 
are  the  sons  of  the  region  between  the  Alleghanies 
and  the  Mississippi  moving  in  any  strong  stream 
to  make  home  and  fortune  in  the  newer  regions 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  115 

of  the  West.     "Westward  Ho  !"  is  no  longer  the      chap.  hi. 
cry.     There  is,  indeed,  a  more  discernible  move- 
ment northward  and  southward.     From  a  general  North- 

reffion  of  which  Iowa  may  be  taken  as  the  center,  ^'°^ ,  °     . 
"  southward 

there  is  a  movement  of  young  men  to  the  new 

wheat  lands  of  the  far  Canadian  Northwest,  and 

there  is  a  decided  movement  of  older  men  to  the 

more  genial  climatic  conditions  of  Louisiana  and 

the  Southwest. 

As  for  young  men  who  seek  business  or  profes-  New  York 

sional  careers  in  cities,  New  York  now  calls  more  ^^  °     ^'^^^ 

strongly  to  the  ambitious  young  men  of  the  West 

and   South   than   Chicago   or  the  other  Western 

centers  call  to  the  ambitious  young  men  of  the 

East.     In    short,    the    westward    pioneering   and 

developing  trend  of  our  American  population  is 

at  an  end.     Some  reaction  has  set  in,  and  Eastern  Revival  of 

land  that  had  been  neglected  and  had  become    , 

o  farming 

relatively  cheap  has  a  tendency  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  Western  men.  The  most  marked  change 
in  the  status  of  population,  however,  is  that 
which  has  built  up  the  cities  and  industrial  centers 
at  the  expense  of  the  villages  and  the  country 
communities. 

And  next  to  this,  the  most  marked  change  is 
the  decline  of  the  old  native  population  in  New 


116 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  III. 

Population 
changes  in 
the  East 


New  Eng- 
land's 
abandoned 
farms 


They  once 
produced 
great  men 
and 
women 


England  and  in  other  parts  of  the  East.  If  it 
were  not,  indeed,  for  the  influx  of  a  vast  European 
population  to  supply  the  demand  for  labor  caused 
by  the  falling  off  of  the  native  population,  it 
would  be  seen  that  New  England,  and  some  other 
parts  of  the  country  as  well,  are  not  merely  at  a 
standstill  like  France  in  point  of  population,  but 
are  declining  to  a  point  threatening  extinction. 

Wealth  and  industry,  indeed,  served  by  foreign- 
born  labor,  seem  in  no  danger  of  declining  in 
New  England.  But  the  decadence  of  once  beau- 
tiful and  famous  villages,  and  the  relapse  to  wil- 
derness conditions  of  what  was  once  a  well-tilled 
country,  are  indeed  pathetic.  Not  long  ago  I  was 
wandering  over  the  rock-ribbed  pastures  of  a  New 
England  state.  At  best,  the  thin  covering  of 
soil  seemed  only  a  few  inches  deep.  In  lieu  of 
fences,  the  tiny  fields  were  separated  by  massive 
granite  stone  walls,  blasted  and  hewn  out  of  the 
solid  rock,  or  else  heaped  up  with  giant  bowlders 
by  those  Yankees  of  prodigious  industry  a  hun- 
dred years  or  more  ago.  They  raised  poor  crops, 
tho.se  hardy  farmers,  but  they  planted  churches 
and  schools,  and  they  produced  men  and  women. 
These  are  the  real  tests  of  the  greatness  of  a  com- 
munity or  a  state. 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  117 

If  in  the  same  spirit  of  devotion  and  courage      chap.  hi. 
those  New  England  pioneers  had  perchance  made   ^  picture 

their  farms  on  richer  soil,  they  would  have  been  of  present 

coTtdxtxofis 
none  the  worse  for  it,  and  the  results  in  a  local 

sense  would  have  been  more  enduring.  They 
built  up  men  and  women  for  the  glory  of  the 
nation  and  the  peopling  of  prairie  states  yet  un- 
born. But  in  thousands  of  instances  their  farms, 
so  painfully  redeemed  from  forest  and  from  rock, 
have  now  relapsed  to  a  state  of  wilderness  where 
some  gnarled  old  apple  tree,  in  the  very  thick  of  a 
dense  growth  of  scrub  oak,  birch,  spruce  and 
pine,  reminds  us  that  here  were  once  cleared 
fields  and  orchards,  thrifty  homesteads,  men  who 
plowed  and  women  who  spun,  all  for  the  glory 
of  God  and  the  greatness  of  the  American  name. 
Only  a  hundred  years  ago  —  or  even  seventy-   The 

five  years  or  fifty  years  ago  —  these  were  tidy,  "'*^"^'""^ss 

_         _  again 

decent  farms.     To-day  they  are  lost  in  mile  after 

mile  of  tangled  young  forest,  where  the  fox  dwells, 

where  the  wild  deer  has  come  back,  and  where 

even  the  wolves  and  panthers  have  reappeared. 

Of  course,  within  a  few  miles  there  are  thriving 

manufacturing  towns,  and  there  is  progress  along   The  new 

other  lines.     But  these  manufacturing  towns  are  ,  ,.    „ 

«=»  populations 

made  up  of  a  new  and  strange  population  of 


118 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  III. 


The 

'problems 
of  the 
village 


Decay 
of  the 
rural 
hamlet 


polyglot  origin ;  and  in  the  lesser  of  the  farming 
hamlets  there  remain  few,  if  any,  who  would  care 
to  celebrate  the  one  hundredth  or  the  two  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  the  neighborhood,  or  who 
possess  either  the  knowledge,  the  reverence,  or 
the  personal  interest  to  save  the  tombs  of  the 
stalwart  forefathers  from  neglect. 

With  the  growth  of  the  factory  towns,  the 
decline  of  the  villages  of  New  England  and  other 
parts  of  the  North  and  East  is  a  most  painful 
thing  to  consider.  The  life  of  a  village  when  it 
is  stagnant  and  listless,  and  without  the  touch  of 
idealism,  is  about  the  pettiest  and  worst  of  all 
possible  kinds  of  life.  The  city,  even  with  its 
darker  aspects  of  misery  and  vice,  stimulates  the 
mind  by  its  rush  and  roar,  its  external  activities, 
and  its  ever-changing  sensations  and  novelties. 
But  the  dull,  dead  rustic  hamlet,  where  nobody 
cares  for  anything  or  believes  in  anything  beyond 
the  gratification  of  a  few  sordid,  material  wants, 
is  in  danger  of  sinking  to  a  lower  moral  level  than 
the  slums  of  the  great  towns.  And  quite  in  con- 
trast with  conditions  of  a  half  century  ago  we 
now  find  thousands  of  such  depraved  neighbor- 
hoods where  fair  skies  shine  on  the  scenes  of 
natural  loveliness,  without  seeming  in  the  very 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  119 

least  to  lift  up  the  minds  and  souls  of  men  to      chap.  hi. 
noble  thoughts  and  aspirations. 

Assuredly  we  seem  to  be  moving  in  a  vicious  Is  it  a 

circle.     For,  first,  the  present  conditions  of  city  .^^"^,^* 

CZTCC&      T 

life  are  not  to  be  sought  as  a  remedy  and  a  refuge 

from  decay  and   demoralization   in   the   country 

districts;    and,  second,  on  the  other  hand,  there 

is  no  such  moral  or  social  health  in  the  villages 

and  farm  neighborhoods  as  would  seem  to  invite 

a  retreat  from  the  urban  centers  of  population. 

Nor  would  it  seem  very  encouraging  to  admit    The  dis- 

the  fact  that  our  own  American  stock  is  increasing  ^^'"^'''^d^^d 

phases 

scarcely  any  if  at  all,  while  our  enhanced  economic 
power  as  a  nation  is  derived  from  the  working 
energy  brought  to  us  by  Italians  and  Poles,  Rus- 
sians and  Hungarians,  and  strange  peoples  from 
many  lands,  with  little  or  no  kinship  to  us  whether 
of  race  or  ideals.  And  in  addition  to  these  con- 
ditions there  are  the  further  problems  of  popula- 
tion in  large  parts  of  the  country,  due  to  the  pres- 
ence of  the  negro  race.  It  is  not  only  in  the  Toivn  and 
Eastern  states  that  the  decline  of  rural  population  '^^^^  ^^ 
has  been  marked  and  absolute,  but  the  tendency 
exists  even  beyond  the  Mississippi  River,  where, 
for  example,  in  Iowa  there  has  been  for  many 
years  a  positive  falling  off  in  the  population  of  the 


120 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  III. 


The 

problems 
of  city  and 
country 
life 


Identical 
rather  than 
opposed 


strictly  country  neighborhoods,  with  a  marked 
increase  in  the  railroad  towns  and  the  larger  cen- 
ters of  population. 

Here,  then,  are  two  sets  of  problems,  pressing 
upon  us  at  the  same  moment.  The  first  of  these 
are  very  urgent:  having  to  do  with  the  way  in 
which  we  must  order  the  life  of  cities  and  towns 
so  that  we  may  minimize  the  evils  of  population 
centers,  while  at  the  same  time  we  derive  a  maxi- 
mum of  benefit  from  the  opportunities  for  social 
welfare  that  are  afforded  where  many  people 
live  and  work  in  the  same  immediate  vicinity. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  have  the  pressing  problem 
of  the  rehabilitation  of  country  life,  so  that  the 
farm  may  be  less  distasteful  and  so  that  the  village 
community  may  be  sweeter  and  happier  in  its  life 
and  less  disadvantaged  in  its  opportunities  as 
compared  with  the  city. 

Fortunately,  these  two  sets  of  problems  do  not 
antagonize  one  another,  and  it  is  better  to  view 
them  as  parts  of  a  larger  whole  than  as  unrelated. 
It  is  not,  then,  the  question  of  country  life  as 
against  city  life ;  but  in  both  country  and  city  it 
is  a  question  of  the  larger  use  of  modern  oppor- 
tunity, and  the  determined  effort  to  do  away  with 
bad    conditions.     In   a    thousand    ways    the   life 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  121 

of  the  great  towns  is  actually  becoming  amelio-  chap.  hi. 
rated;  and  there  are  now  standards  and  methods 
of  scientific  and  social  progress  that  are  bringing 
about  most  salutary  changes.  Our  cities  were  Sanitary 
once  the  centers  of  epidemic  disease,  and  the 
death  rate  averaged  higher  than  the  birth  rate. 
This  is  no  longer  the  case,  for  health  administra- 
tion has  practically  stamped  out  epidemics,  and 
the  harmful  physical  tendencies  of  thirty  or  forty 
years  ago  are  rapidly  disappearing. 

The  modern  transit  facilities  of  our  towns  and   Improved 

cities  are  distributing  the  population  over  sub-    ,    .,.,. 

°  ^   '^  jacilihes 

urban  areas,  and  thus  the  city  has  a  tendency  to 
become  countrified;  while  parks  and  libraries, 
improved  schools,  and  facilities  for  recreation, 
make  the  life  of  the  workingman's  family  a  very 
much  more  comfortable  thing  to-day  in  a  commer- 
cial center  or  factory  town  than  it  was  a  half 
century  ago  or  even  twenty  years  ago.  While  the 
tendency  has  set  in  this  direction,  the  opportu-  Further 

nities  for  an  improved  life  in  the  towns  have  only   f!,^.^]' 
'■  "^    mimes 

begun  to  be  realized ;  and  every  educated  young 
man  entering  upon  his  life  career  at  this  time,  it 
seems  to  me,  is  bound  to  acquaint  himself  with 
these  matters  and,  in  so  far  as  it  falls  to  his  lot, 
to  help  bring  about  the  complete  regeneration  of 


122 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  III. 


Remedies 
now  at 
hand 


Improving 

country 

schools 


Necessary 
to  increase 
the  taxable 
total 


the  conditions  of  American  life  in  the  centers  of 
industry  and  trade. 

I  do  not  beheve  that  any  of  this  work  is  to  be 
accompHshed  by  angry  or  revolutionary  methods, 
and  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  calm,  moderate 
application  of  remedies  now  understood  by  men 
of  knowledge  and  skill  in  engineering  or  sanitary 
or  administrative  science  can  bring  about  the 
desired  consummations. 

When  it  comes  to  the  problems  of  country  life, 
we  find  a  hopeful  process  of  urbanization  going 
on  in  the  rural  districts.  Perhaps  the  greatest 
demand  is  for  good,  modern,  up-to-date,  central- 
ized country  schools,  with  well-trained  teachers 
who  have  a  knack  for  making  school  work  relate 
itself  to  the  lives  of  country  children.  But  in 
order  to  support  such  schools  the  state  school 
fund  will  not  suffice,  and  there  must  be  ample 
local  taxation.  Yet  if  local  taxation  is  to  provide 
the  proper  facilities  of  schools,  good  roads,  and 
other  neighborhood  conveniences,  there  must 
be  something  to  tax.  Farm  land  must  become 
more  valuable.  It  must  produce  better  and  more 
diversified  crops.  Water  power  must  be  utilized, 
and  manufacturing  must  be  brought  into  the  neigh- 
borhood, where  natural  conditions  make  it  possible. 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  123 

And  here  let  me  say  that  the  greatest  triumph     chap.  m. 
of  the  pioneering  period  in  America  has  been  the   Capital 

creation  of  a  great  body  of  capitahzed   wealth.   ^'"■'^  ^^^ 

qualities 
This   process   must   go   steadily  forward.     It   is  of  men 

true  the  poet  warns  us  against  those  hastening 

ills  which  are  sure  to  prey  upon  a  country  "  where 

wealth   accumulates   and   men   decay."     But   in 

modern  times  men  have  been  far  more  likely  to 

decay  under  conditions   of  poverty  than  under 

conditions     of     wealth.       The     great     economic 

achievement  of  the  past  generation  has  been  the  Lessening 

relative  abolition  of  poverty.     I  take  frank  and   L,^g^^ 

straightforward  issue  with  those  who  hold  that 

the  accumulation  of  great  fortunes  in  this  country 

has  been  simultaneous  with  the  impoverishment 

of  the  masses. 

Those  great  fortunes  are  merely  in  the  form  Production 

of  tremendous  agencies  for  the  production  and 

^  '^  control 

distribution  at  low  cost  of  articles  of  common  use 
and  necessity.  The  larger  these  accumulations 
of  capital  engaged  in  production,  the  greater  the 
output  and  the  wider  the  diffusion  of  benefits 
throughout  the  whole  mass  of  the  people.  I  do 
not  like  to  see  the  control  of  these  agencies  of 
production  vested  so  largely  in  the  hands  of  a  few 
individuals.     I  deplore  those  lax  and  unregulated 


124 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  III. 


Results 
of  lax 
conditions 


Need  of 
further 
growth  of 
capital 


conditions  of  private  initiative,  during  the  later 
pioneering  epoch  in  this  country,  that  placed  in 
the  hands  of  a  relatively  few  men  the  control  of 
the  railroad  systems,  the  coal,  the  oil,  the  copper, 
the  iron  and  steel,  and  many  other  important 
products,  processes,  and  industries,  which  engage 
the  toil  of  the  people  and  which  produce  the 
necessities  and  conveniences  that  are  now  making 
most  of  our  people  comfortable  in  their  daily  lives. 

But  although  we  might  have  avoided,  if  we 
had  been  wiser,  so  high  a  concentration  of  private 
control  over  the  instruments  of  production,  we 
have  done  a  very  great  and  beneficent  thing  in  this 
country  in  creating  so  vast  an  amount  of  wealth 
in  capitalized  form.  And  it  is  this  which  is  lift- 
ing our  people  as  a  whole  from  the  degradation  of 
poverty. 

What  we  have  then  to  do,  while  seeking  for 
justice  and  fair  play  in  the  distribution  of  wealth, 
is  to  strive  with  might  and  main  for  the  further 
production  of  wealth  in  order  by  the  same  process 
to  emancipate  such  other  communities  as  yet  re- 
main in  the  hard  clutches  of  poverty.  There  are 
many  such  communities  in  the  mountain  districts 
of  North  Carolina  and  neighboring  states.  Let 
the  water  power  be  utilized  to  turn  the  wheels  of 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  125 

factories,  and  let  the  capitalist  be  encouraged  to     chap.  hi. 

come  and  give  employment  to  labor.     In  turn, 

let  the  factories  be  taxed  for  the  support  of  schools. 

Encourage  in  every  possible  way  the  scientific  Outlook 

knowledge  of  agriculture.     There   are   states    in  ^^^ 

^  farming 

the  prairie  regions  of  the  Middle  West  where  so 
intense  is  the  interest  in  scientific  agriculture,  and 
so  prosperous  is  the  farming  community,  that 
the  sons  of  physicians  and  lawyers  and  merchants 
in  the  towns  are  now  attending  the  state  agricul- 
tural colleges  and  crowding  the  classes  in  practical 
agriculture,  with  a  view  to  becoming  farmers  of 
the  new  sort  with  a  knowledge  of  soils  and  ferti- 
lizers and  varied  crop  conditions.  In  one  Western 
state,  within  three  or  four  years,  the  work  of  the 
agricultural  college  in  showing  the  farmers  how  The  new 
to  select  their  seed  corn  has  added  perhaps  from 
five  to  ten  dollars  an  acre  to  the  actual  value  of 
all  the  land  of  the  entire  commonwealth. 

We  are  just  at  the  beginning  of  agricultural   Pioneer 
development    in    this    country.     Having    worked  J"-^^]  " 
over  and  exhausted  our  soil  from  one  ocean  to  the  results 
other,  we  are  going  back  and  learning  the  business 
of  farming  all  over  again,  under  permanent  con- 
ditions.    Across   vast   expanses   of  America  the 
log-cabin  period  still  continues.     A  better  kind 


126 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP,  III. 


Lessons 

from 

abroad 


The 

mountain 
people 
of  the 
South 


of  country  life  and  a  new  knowledge  of  the  pos- 
sibilities of  agriculture  must  be  made  to  change 
all  this.  There  must  now  come  a  mature  period 
of  positive  rural  prosperity,  following  the  lax  and 
shiftless  days  since  the  first  freshness  of  the  soil 
was  exliausted  by  the  pioneers  who  made  the 
clearings. 

We  must  be  willing  to  take  lessons  in  agricul- 
ture from  the  thrifty  farmers  of  France,  from  the 
rich  tillers  of  small  holdings  in  Holland  and 
Belgium,  from  those  sturdy  men  who  maintain 
high  intelligence  and  decent  standards  of  life 
in  the  valleys  and  on  the  mountain  slopes  of 
Switzerland.  We  must  find  out  how  Denmark 
has  rehabilitated  its  agricultural  life,  and  the 
remarkable  new  things  the  farmers  are  learning  to 
do  in  Ireland. 

There  is  no  reason  why  several  million  dwellers 
in  the  Appalachian  highlands  of  America  should 
always  remain  poverty-stricken,  anaemic,  igno- 
rant, and  of  primitive  manners  and  ways  of  living. 
They  come  of  a  strong  and  virile  stock,  they 
belong  all  of  them  to  the  early  pioneering  epoch, 
they  are  Americans  with  the  traditions  of  the  past. 
Why  should  they  not  be  great  and  dominant 
Americans  of  the  future  .'*     With  education,  their 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  127 

sons    and    daughters    show   their   good    quahties      chap.  m. 
with  an  amazing  responsiveness.     Economic  de- 
velopment is  what  the  Appalachian  districts  need,    ^'hey  need 
and  all  these  modern  processes  must  find    their  o„»(,r- 
way  into  the  hills,  capital  must  be  encouraged,  tunity 
the  factory  and  the  improved  school  must  stand 
together    as    missionaries   of    social    redemption. 
And  so  this  vast  hill  country  must  become  alive 
with  a  new  hope  and  a  new  prosperity. 

We  live  in  an  economic  age,  and  we  must  not   "Bust- 
he  afraid  of  it.     The  business  career  nowadays  is  ^f^^ . 

''  dominates 

the  dominating  one.     The  lawyer  either  becomes 

a  business  man,  or  becomes  the  adjunct  of  some 

business  or  corporate  organization.     The  engineer, 

the  architect,  the  men  of  various  other  professions 

are  simply  the  technical  and  special  servants  of 

a  world  intent  upon  business  achievement.     We 

could  not  make  this  situation  otherwise,  and  we 

ought  to  strive  to  understand  it  and  to  bring  it 

under  proper  control. 

For  the  South  and  West,  I  firmly  believe  that  Funda- 

the    development    of   wealth    is   to   be    regarded  ^^^jff^ 
'  ^  ^  ^  the  South 

as  an  urgent,  fundamental  condition  for  the 
meeting  of  many  other  problems  of  importance. 
I  do  not  for  a  moment  fail  to  see  the  pressing  need 
of  working  for  rules  of  law  and  of  conduct  that 


128 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  III. 


Produce 
first  : 
then 
divide 


Democracy 

requires 
intelli- 
gence 


will  bring  about  a  more  equitable  distribution  of 
wealth.  But  remember  that  you  have  not  yet 
brought  one  tenth  of  the  possible  results  out  of 
your  soil,  your  mines,  your  forests,  your  water 
power,  your  latent  human  resources  of  inventive- 
ness and  industry. 

Do  not  then  be  too  anxious  about  the  distri- 
bution of  wealth ;  or  at  least  remember  that  we 
are  still  in  a  condition  where,  for  many  of  our 
states  and  communities,  the  development,  rather 
than  the  distribution  of  wealth,  is  still  the  fore- 
most problem.  I  have  never  been  an  apologist 
for  mere  plutocracy,  and  I  hope  I  may  never  shut 
my  eyes  to  any  injustice  in  the  methods  by  which 
an  individual  or  a  group  of  individuals  may  at 
times  make  unfair  use  of  capitalistic  or  industrial 
power.  But  remember  that  no  railroad  can  grow 
rich  unless  it  serves  a  rich  and  prosperous  country. 
And  no  industrial  trust  can  create  its  multi- 
millionaires, excepting  under  conditions  which 
also  promote  the  diffusion  of  an  incalculably 
greater  quantity  of  wealth  among  millions  of 
people. 

Ours  remains  a  democracy,  and  there  are  no 
class  distinctions  of  rigidity  as  yet  developed  in 
the  United  States.     We  must  not  lose  faith  in 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  129 

our  democracy,  and  we  must  remember  that  it      chap.  hi. 
must   continue   to  find   its   support  in  the   wide 
diffusion  of  character  and  inteUigence.     Having 
made  our  states  in  a  pioneer  fashion,  we  must  now 
proceed  to  make  them  all  over  again  on  a  new  and 
a  better  plan,  using  the  instrumentalities  which 
the  pioneer  period  has  placed  in  our  hands.     We 
must  cultivate  the  spirit  of  tolerance  and  modera- 
tion.    We  have  no  need  to  deal  ruthlessly  or  by   Tolerance 
revolutionary    methods    with    any    of    our    great    ,.         . 
public  questions.     We  must  be  honest,  diligent, 
faithful,    and    open-minded.     We    must    not    be 
afraid  of  the  fair  discussion  of  any  question  what- 
soever. 

We  cannot  see  clearly  into  the  distant  future.    Things 
but  we  can  see  many  things  that  it  is  right  to  do       f  j    u 
in  the  present,  and  we  can  at  least  stand  up  and  done 
be  counted  on  the  right  side.     We  can  fall  in  with 
the  marvelous  new  tendency  for  the  improvement 
of  farming  and  of  the  conditions  of  country  life 
in  every  part  of  America,  and  we  can  at  the  same 
time  give  our  sympathy,  and  so  far  as  possible 
our  aid,  to  every  good  movement  that  brightens 
the  life  of  workers  in  factories  and  dwellers  in 
towns  and  cities. 

We  shall  have  to  make  over  again  in  a  new 

K 


130 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  III. 

Culture 
and  labor 


Foreigners 
and  their 
children 


How  to 

■preserve 

American 

ideals 


way  most  of  our  educational  methods,  because 
we  are  educating  the  children  for  conditions  of 
life  so  different  from  those  that  existed  half  a 
century  ago.  We  must  believe  that  culture  and 
labor  may  go  hand  in  hand.  We  must  welcome 
the  idealist,  and  understand  that  no  progress 
could  be  made  but  for  men  and  women  who  see 
visions  of  better  things  and  strive  to  give  their 
visions  practical  reality.  We  must  not  be  afraid 
that  harm  will  come  from  the  lifting  up  of  any 
man  or  woman  or  child,  however  humble. 

We  have  a  great  problem  in  our  Northern 
cities,  caused  by  the  influx  of  more  than  a  million 
foreigners  every  year.  To  read  a  book  like  Upton 
Sinclair's  novel,  "  The  Jungle,"  makes  one  shudder 
with  dread  and  a  sense  of  horror.  But  when  one 
sees  thousands  upon  thousands  of  the  children  of 
these  strange  peoples  in  the  public  schools  of 
New  York  and  Chicago,  knows  their  eager  minds, 
their  quick  grasp  of  American  history  and  their 
enthusiasm  for  American  ideals,  one  learns  that 
it  is  not  by  blood  descent  alone  that  we  transmit 
those  things  that  make  up  our  stock  of  ideas  and 
traditions,  but  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  training 
the  children  of  Italians  and  Poles  and  Lithuanians 
to  a  worthy  American  citizenship.     In  any  case  we 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIOxNEERS  131 

have  these  people  with  us,  and  we  must  make  the     chap.  hi. 

best  of  the  problem.     The  right  kind  of  education 

is  that  which  fits  boys  and  girls  to  live  well  the 

life  which  is  their  appropriate  lot  under  existing 

conditions. 

If  you  have  any  doubt  about  the  value  of  educa-  What  is 

lion  to  any  human  being  of  any  race  whatsoever,    ' '      , .     „ 
•^  o  "^  education? 

stop  with  your  definition  of  the  word.  Most  of 
the  boys  and  girls  of  our  recent  immigrants  must 
be  plain,  sturdy  workers.  Their  education  in 
the  schools  ought  to  keep  this  fact  in  mind  every 
day,  and  ought  not  to  alienate  them  from  the 
hard  tasks  of  ordinary  life.  Education  to-day 
is  the  greatest  problem  that  confronts  our  Ameri- 
can statesmanship,  whether  North  or  South. 
The  pioneering  process  was  a  sort  of  education 
in  itself.  The  colleges,  it  is  true,  did  their  work 
fairly  well,  but  a  little  experience  in  the  district  The  pioneer 
schools,  plus  a  large  experience  in  the  school  of 
life,  produced  most  of  our  efficient  men  and 
women.  In  the  new  period  we  must  consciously 
make  our  school  systems  minister  to  the  solution 
of  our  social  and  industrial  problems. 

As  citizens,  we  must  now,  more  than  ever,  face 
our  public  responsibilities.  As  I  have  said,  the 
pioneering  century  was  that  of  an  overweening 


132 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  III. 

Socialism 
versus 
the  just 
balance 


Certain 
principles  : 
—  (1)  The 
common 
carrier 


private  initiative.  Shall  the  pendulum  now  swing 
to  the  opposite  extreme,  shall  we  become  full- 
fledged  socialists,  shall  government  not  only 
regulate  and  control,  but  shall  it  lay  hold  upon 
the  instruments  of  production,  and  shall  we  all  in 
our  respective  callings  don  the  uniform  of  public 
service  ?  I  do  not  see  why  we  need  to  face  just 
now  any  radical  solution.  We  must  simply  find 
a  just  and  true  balance  between  the  authority 
of  the  government  and  the  power  of  the  law  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  freedom  and  scope  of 
private  enterprise  on  the  other. 

Admitting  certain  principles,  we  must  not  be 
afraid  of  their  application  under  new  conditions. 
The  function  of  the  common  carrier  is  a  public 
one,  and  it  is  a  sound  principle  that  carriers  should 
treat  all  citizens  fairly  and  impartially.  The 
founders  of  the  Republic  gave  to  the  government 
the  power  to  regulate  interstate  commerce.  In 
so  far  as  private  initiative  and  great  business 
interests  have  diverted  the  railroad  system  of 
the  country  from  its  true  function,  the  govern- 
ment must  find  and  enforce  a  remedy. 

Another  principle  is  well  established,  and  that 
is  the  right  of  government,  whether  local  or  general, 
to  protect  the  health  of  the  individual  or  the  family 


LEGACY  FROxM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS  133 

against  dangerous  conditions  over  which  the  in-      chap.  hi. 
dividual  has  no  power  to  act  for  self-protection. 
It  is  right  that  your  local  authorities  should  pro-   (2)  Public 
tect  you  in  your  home  against  the  spread  of  infec-  (^^^^for 
tious    disease    through    the    carelessness    of   your 
neighbors.     And  it  is  also  right,  if  on  the  national 
and  international  scale  the  food  supply  is  dele- 
terious to  health,  that  there  should  be  some  form 
of    public    intervention    and     protection.     With 
the  complexity  of  our  more  mature  social  condi- 
tions,   these    new    problems    present    themselves 
one  after  another.     They  must  be  faced  as  they 
come  up  and  must  be  solved  honestly  and  intelli- 
gently. 

Government  will  inevitably  become  more  costly.   Increased 

because  there  will  be  more  things  in  the  future  ^^^^  "^ 

govern- 

than  in  the  past  to  be  done  collectively  for  the  ment 
common  benefit.  And  so,  while  trying  to  solve 
the  problem  how  to  secure  a  more  equal  distribu- 
tion of  private  wealth  among  citizens,  we  must 
also  learn  better  ways  to  supply  local  and  state 
and  national  governments  with  the  revenues  that 
they  need  for  the  carrying  on  of  their  increasing 
functions. 

All  these  are  not  things  for  you  to  worry  about, 
young  men,  but  they  are  things  for  you  to  take 


134 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.   III. 

A  time  for 
energy, 
not  for 
anxiety 


an  intense  interest  in.  Do  not  shrink  in  fear  from 
the  problems  before  us.  Do  not  lose  faith  in  our 
people,  or  our  country,  or  our  institutions.  But 
be  glad  that  you  may  all  bear  some  part  in  help- 
ing to  do  the  work  of  your  generation ;  so  that, 
as  the  pioneers  before  us  saw  the  wilderness  sub- 
dued and  peopled,  and  gloried  in  the  country's 
swift  material  progress,  you  may  live  to  see  an 
intensive  progress  where  the  pioneer  saw  an  ex- 
tensive one,  and  may  feel  that  you  have  helped  in 
your  day  and  generation  to  reestablish  on  firm 
foundations  those  things  that  have  always  be- 
longed to  the  best  ideals  of  American  life. 


THE   BUSINESS   CAREER 
AND   THE   COMMUNITY 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   BUSINESS   CAREER   AND   THE 
COMMUNITY 


We   have   heard    much  in  these  recent    times    The 

.1        J.  J.     •      -J.         1   !.•        1.      i     J      •        business 
concernmo;  the  state  m  its  relation  to  trade,  in- 

^  community 

dustry,  and  the  economic  concerns  of  individuals  and  the 
and  groups.  Rapidly  changing  conditions,  how-  ^ 
ever,  make  it  fitting  that  more  should  be  said 
from  the  opposite  standpoint ;  that  is  to  say,  re- 
garding the  responsibilities  of  the  business  com- 
munity as  such  toward  the  state  in  particular 
and  toward  the  whole  social  organism  in  general. 

Some  of  the  thouohts  to  which  I  should  like  The 
to  give  expression  might  perhaps  too  readily  ''  /  •  * 
fall  into  abstract  or  philosophical  terms.  They 
might,  on  the  other  hand,  not  less  easily  clothe 
themselves  in  cant  phrases  and  assume  the  horta- 
tory tone.  I  shall  try  to  avoid  dialectic  or  theory 
on  the  one  hand,  and  preaching  on  the  other. 
I  take  it  that  what  I  am  to  say  is  addressed  chiefly 
to  young  men,  and  that  it  ought  to  serve  a  prac- 
tical object. 

137 


138 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 

Motive 
in  the 
business 
world 


"  Commer- 
cialism" 
and  its 
critics 


In  the  universities  the  spirit  of  idealism  domi- 
nates. The  academic  point  of  view  is  not  merely 
an  intellectual  one,  but  it  is  also  ethical  and  altru- 
istic. In  the  business  world,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  are  told  that  no  success  is  possible  except  that 
which  is  based  upon  the  motive  of  money  getting 
by  any  means,  however  ruthless.  We  are  told 
that  the  standards  of  business  life  are  in  conflict 
irreconcilable  with  true  idealistic  aims  .  It  is  this 
situation  that  I  wish  to  analyze  and  discuss;  for 
it  concerns  the  student  in  a  very  direct  way. 

Our  moralists  point  out  the  dangerous  preva- 
lence of  those  low  standards  of  personal  life  and 
conduct  summed  up  in  the  term  "commercial- 
ism." We  are  warned  by  some  of  our  foremost 
teachers  and  ethical  leaders  against  commercial- 
ism in  politics  and  commercialism  in  society.  So 
bitterly  reprobated  indeed  is  the  influence  of 
commercialism  that  it  might  be  inferred  that 
commerce  itself  is  at  best  a  necessary  evil  and 
a  thing  to  be  apologized  for.  But  if  we  are  to 
accept  this  point  of  view  without  careful  discrimi- 
nation, we  may  well  be  alarmed ;  for  we  live  in 
a  world  given  over  as  never  before  to  the  whirl 
of  industry  and  the  rush  and  excitement  of  the 
market-place. 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  139 

This,  of  all  ages,  is  the  age  of  the  business      chap.  iv. 

man.     The  heroic  times  when  warfare  was  the    j^j^^ 

chief  concern  of  nations,  have  long  since  passed   business 

man's  age 
by.     So,  too,  the  ages  of  faith  —  when  theology 

was  the  mainspring  of  action,  when  whole  peoples 
went  on  long  crusades,  and  when  building  cathe- 
drals and  burning  heretics  were  typical  of  men's 
efforts  and  convictions  —  have  fallen  far  into  the 
historic   background.     Further,   we   would    seem    y/jg 

in  the  main  to  have  left  behind  us  that  period  of  historic 

background 
which  the  French  Revolution  is  the  most  con- 
spicuous landmark,  when  the  gaining  of  political 
liberty  for  the  individual  seemed  the  one  supreme 
good,  and  the  object  for  which  nations  and  com- 
munities were  ready  to  sacrifice  all  else. 

Through  these  and  other  periods  characterized    Idealism 

,,,.  .,.  I'll  1  am!  trade 

by  their  own  especial  aims  and  ideals  we  have         ,.^. 
•^  '  conditions 

come  to  an  age  when  commercialism  is  the  all- 
absorbing  thing;  and  we  are  told  by  pessimists 
that  these  dominant  conditions  are  hopelessly  in- 
compatible with  academic  idealism  or  with  the 
maintenance  of  high  ethical  standards,  whether 
for  the  guidance  of  the  individual  himself  or  for 
the  acceptance  and  control  of  the  community. 
It  is  precisely  this  state  of  affairs,  then,  that  I 
desire  briefly  to  consider.     And  I  shall  keep  in 


140        THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  IV.  mind  those  bearings  of  it  that  might  seem  to 
have  some  relation  to  the  views  and  aims  of  stu- 
dents who  are  soon  to  go  out  from  the  sheltered 
life  of  the  university,  —  under  the  necessity, 
whether  they  shrink  from  it  or  not,  of  becoming 
part  and  parcel  of  this  organism  of  business  and 
trade  that  has  invaded  almost  every  sphere  of 
modern  activity. 

The  drift  I  have   only  recently  heard   a  great   and  elo- 

y.     ^  quent  teacher  of  morals,  himself  an  exponent  of 

times  ^  ^ 

the  highest  and  finest  culture  to  which  we  have 
attained,  speak  in  terms  of  the  utmost  doubt  and 
anxiety  regarding  the  drift  of  the  times.  To  his 
mind,  the  evils  and  dangers  accompanying  the 
stupendous  developments  of  our  day  are  such  as 
to  set  what  he  called  commercialism  in  direct 
antagonism  to  all  that  in  his  mind  represented 
the  higher  good,  which  he  termed  idealism.  The 
impression  that  he  left  upon  his  audience  was  that 
the  forces  of  our  present-day  business  life  are  in- 
herently opposed  to  the  achievement  of  the  best 
results  in  statecraft  and  in  the  general  life  of  the 
Ananxious  community.  He  could  propose  no  remedy  for 
moralist  ^^^  ^^jjg  j^^  deplored  except  education,  and  the 
saving  of  the  old  ideals  through  the  remnant  of 
the   faithful   who   had    not   bowed   the   knee   in 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  141 

the  temple  of  Mammon.     But  he  pointed  out  no      chap.  iv. 

way  by  which  to   protect   the   tender  blossoms 

of    academic    idealism,    when    they    meet    their 

inevitable  exposure  in  due  time  to  the  blighting 

and  withering  blasts  of  the  commercialism  that  to 

him  seemed  so  little  reconcilable  with  the  good, 

the  true,  and  the  beautiful. 

To  all  this  the  practical  man  can  only  reply,   The 

that  if,   indeed,   commercialism   itself  cannot  be   V^ac  ica 

man  s 

made  to  furnish  a  soil  and  an  atmosphere  in  reply 
which  idealism  can  grow,  bud,  blossom,  and  bear 
glorious  fruit,  —  then  idealism  is  hopelessly  a  lost 
cause.  If  it  be  not  possible  to  promote  things 
ideally  good  through  these  very  forces  of  com- 
mercial and  industrial  life,  then  the  outlook  is  a 
gloomy  one  for  the  social  moralist  and  the  politi- 
cal purist. 

It  is  not  a  defensive  position  that  I  propose  to  Not  a 
take.     I  should  not  think  it  needful  at  this  time   I'^^^j^^^^. 
even  so  much  as  briefly  to  reflect  any  of  those  honesty 
timorous  and  painful  arguments  pro  and  co7i  that 
one  finds  at  times  running  through  the  columns  of 
the  press,  particularly  of  the  religious  weeklies, 
on   such   a   question    as,   for   example,   whether 
nowadays  a  man  can  at  the  same  time  be  a  true 
Christian    and    a    successful    business    man;     or 


142 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 


A  higher 
principle 
at  stake 


The 

negative 
moral  code 


whether  the  observance  of  the  principles  of  com- 
mon honesty  is  at  all  compatible  with  a  winning 
effort  to  make  a  decent  living. 

I  am  well  aware  that  the  thoughtful  and  intel- 
lectual founder  of  this  lectureship,  under  which  I 
have  been  invited  to  speak,  takes  no  such  narrow 
view  either  of  morality  on  the  one  hand  or  of 
the  function  of  business  life  on  the  other.  His 
definition  of  morality  in  business  would  demand 
something  very  different  from  the  mere  avoidance 
of  certain  obvious  transgressions  of  the  accepted 
rules  of  conduct,  particularly  of  that  command- 
ment which  says,  "Thou  shalt  not  steal."  Nor, 
on  the  other  hand,  would  his  definition  of  the 
functions  of  business  life  be  in  any  manner 
bounded  by  the  notion  that  business  is  a  pursuit 
having  for  its  sole  object  the  getting  of  the  largest 
possible  amount  of  money. 

Those  people  who  are  content  to  apply  nega- 
tive moral  standards  to  the  carrying  on  of  busi- 
ness life  remind  one  of  the  little  boy's  familiar 
definition  of  salt :  "  Salt,"  said  he,  "  is  what  makes 
potatoes  taste  bad  when  you  don't  put  any  on." 
According  to  that  sort  of  definition,  morality  in 
business  would  be  defined  as  that  quality  which 
makes  the  grocer  good  and  respectable  when  he 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  143 

resists  temptation  and  does  not  put  sand  in  the  chap.  iv. 
sugar.  The  smug  maxim  that  honesty  is  the  best 
pohcy,  while  doubtless  true  enough  as  a  verdict 
of  human  experience  under  normal  conditions,  is 
not  fitted  to  arouse  much  enthusiasm  as  a  state- 
ment of  ultimate  ethical  aims  and  ideals. 

If  it  were  admitted  that  the  sole  or  guiding   Trade 

motive  in  a  business  career  must  needs  be  the   '"^^^^^^  °"" 

the  penal 
accumulation   of  money,   I  should   certainly   not   code 

think  it  worth  while,  in  the  name  of  trade  morals, 
to  urge  young  men  who  arc  to  enter  business  life 
that  they  play  the  game  according  to  safe  and 
well-recognized  rules.  I  would  not  take  the 
trouble  to  advise  them  to  study  the  penal  code 
and  to  familiarize  themselves  with  the  legal  defi- 
nitions of  grand  and  petit  larceny,  of  embezzle- 
ment, or  fraud,  or  arson,  in  order  that  they  might 
escape  certain  hazards  that  beset  a  too  narrow 
kind  of  devotion  to  business  success. 

It  is  true,  doubtless,  that  a  business  career  affords  Some 
peculiar  opportunities,  and  is  therefore  subject  to 
its  own  characteristic  temptations,  as  respects  the 
purely  private  and  personal  standards  of  conduct. 
The  magnitude  of  our  economic  movement, 
the  very  splendor  of  the  opportunities  that  the 
swift  development  of  a  vast  young  country  like 


144 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Personal 
honor 
and  the 
choice  of 
callings 


ours  affords,  must  inevitably  in  some  cases  upset 
at  once  the  sober  business  judgment  of  men,  and 
in  some  cases  the  standard  of  personal  honor 
and  good  faith,  in  the  temptation  to  get  rich 
quickly ;  so  that  wrong  is  done  thereby  to  a  man's 
associates  or  to  those  whose  interests  are  in  his 
hands,  while  still  greater  wrong  is  done  to  his 
own  character. 

But,  even  against  this  dangerous  greed  for 
wealth  and  the  unscrupulousness  and  ruthlessness 
which  it  engenders,  it  is  no  part  of  my  present 
object  to  warn  any  young  man.  I  take  it  that 
the  negative  standards  of  private  conduct  are 
usually  not  much  affected  by  a  man's  choice 
of  a  pursuit  in  life.  If  any  man's  honor  could 
be  filched  from  him  by  a  merely  pecuniary  re- 
ward, whether  greater  or  less,  I  should  not  think 
it  likely  that  he  would  be  much  safer  in  the  long 
run  if  he  chose  the  clerical  profession,  for  example, 
than  if  he  went  into  business. 

Sooner  or  later  his  character  would  disclose 
itself.  It  is  not,  then,  of  the  private  and  negative 
standards  of  conduct  that  I  wish  to  speak,  — 
except  by  way  of  such  allusions  as  these.  And 
even  these  allusions  are  only  for  the  sake  of  mak- 
ing more  distinct  the  positive  and  active  phases 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  145 

of  business  ethics  that  I  should  like  to  present  in      chap.  iv. 

such  a  way  as  to  fasten  them  upon  the  attention. 

Many  young  men,  to  whom  these  views  are  Recognized 

addressed,  will  doubtless  choose,  or  have  already   ^"°^''** 

of  the  -pro- 
chosen,   what   is   commonly   known   as  a   profes-  fessional 

sional  career.  The  ministry,  law,  and  medicine  ^^^^^^ 
are  the  oldest  and  best  recognized  of  the  so-called 
liberal  or  learned  professions.  Now  what  are 
the  distinctive  marks  of  professional  life  ?  Are 
the  men  who  practice  these  professions  not  also 
business  men .''  And  if  so,  how  are  they  differ- 
ent from  those  business  men  who  are  considered 
laymen,  or  non-professional  ?  Obviously  the  dis- 
tinctions that  are  to  be  drawn,  if  any,  are  in 
the  nature  of  marked  tendencies.  We  shall  not 
expect  to  find  any  hard  and  fast  lines.  Many  Certain 
lawyers,  some  doctors,  and  a  few  clergymen  are  ^^""^'^cies 
clearly  enough  business  men,  in  the  sense  that 
they  attach  more  importance  to  the  economic 
bearings  of  the  part  they  play  in  the  social  or- 
ganism than  to  the  higher  ethical  or  intellectual 
aspects  of  their  work. 

I  have  read  and  heard  manv  definitions  of  what 
really  constitutes  a  professional  man.  Whatever 
else,  however,  may  characterize  the  nature  of 
his  calling,   it  seems  to  me   plain   that   no  man 


146 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Service 
of  the 
community 
the  test 


can  be  thought  a  true  or  worthy  member  of  a 
profession  who  does  not  admit,  both  in  theory 
and  in  the  rules  and  practices  of  his  hfe,  that  he 
has  a  public  function  to  serve,  and  that  he  must 
frequently  be  at  some  discomfort  or  disadvantage 
because  of  the  calls  of  professional  duty.  The 
laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire;  and  the  profes- 
sional man  is  entitled  to  obtain,  if  he  can,  a  com- 
petence for  himself  and  his  family  from  the  use- 
ful and  productive  service  he  is  rendering  to  his 
fellow-men.  He  may  even,  through  genius  or 
through  the  great  confidence  his  character  and 
skill  inspire,  gain  considerable  wealth  in  the  prac- 
tice of  his  profession.  But  if  he  is  a  true  pro- 
fessional man,  he  does  not  derive  his  incentive 
Pecuniary  to  effort  solely  or  chiefly  from  the  pecuniary 
gains  that  his  profession  brings  him.  Nor  is  the 
amount  of  his  income  regarded  among  the  fellow- 
members  of  his  profession  as  the  true  test  or 
measure  of  his  success. 

Thus  the  lawyer,  in  the  theory  of  his  profes- 
sion, bears  an  important  public  relation  to  the 
dispensing  of  justice  and  to  the  protection  of  the 
innocent  and  the  feeble.  He  is  not  a  private 
person,  but  a  part  of  the  system  for  supporting 
the  reign  of  law  and  of  right  in  the  community. 


success 

only 

incidental 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  147 

Historically,  in  this  country,  the  lawyer  has  also      chap.  iv. 
borne  a  great  part  in  the  making  and  administer-    The 

ing  of  our  institutions  of  government.     If,  as  some  ^"■^y^'''^ 

public 

of  us  think,  the  ethical  code  of  that  profession  duty 
needs  to  be  somewhat  revised  in  view  of  present- 
day  conditions,  and  needs  also  to  be  more  sternly 
applied  to  some  of  the  members  of  the  profes- 
sion, it  is  true,  none  the  less,  that  there  clearly 
belongs  to  this  great  calling  a  series  of  duties  of  a 
public  nature,  some  of  them  imposed  by  the  laws 
of  the  land,  and  others  inherent  in  the  very  nature 
of  the  occupation  itself. 

It  is  true  in  an  even  more  marked  and  unde- 
niable fashion  that  the   profession   of  medicine, 
by  virtue  of  its  public  and  social  aspects,  is  dis- 
tinguished in  a  marked  way  from  a  calling  in  life 
in  which  a  man  might  feel  that  what  he  did  was   Medicine 
strictly    his    own    business,    subject   to    nobody's   °''^^f 
scrutiny,  or  inquiry,  or  interference.     The  physi-  career 
cian's  public  obligation  is  in  part  prescribed  by 
the   laws   of    the   state   which   regulate    medical 
practice,  and  in  very  large  part  by  the  profes- 
sional  codes   which   have   been   evolved   by  the 
profession  itself  for  its  own  guidance.     It  is  not 
the  amount  of  his  fee  that  the  overworked  doctor 
is  thinking  about  when  he  risks  his  own  health  in 


148 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 

Profes- 
sional un- 
selfishness 


No  real 
self-denial 
in  the  pro- 
fessional 
attitude 


response  to  night  calls,  or  when  he  devotes  him- 
self to  some  especially  painful  or  difficult  case. 
Nor  is  it  a  mere  consideration  of  his  possible 
earnings  that  would  deter  him  from  seeking  com- 
fort and  safety  by  taking  his  family  to  Europe  at 
a  time  when  an  epidemic  had  broken  out  in  his 
own  neighborhood. 

I  need  not  allude  to  the  unselfish  devotion  to 
the  good  of  the  community  that  in  so  high  a  de- 
gree marks  the  lives  of  most  of  the  members  of 
the  clerical  profession,  for  this  is  evident  to  all 
observant  persons. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  cannot  be  too  clearly 
perceived  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  disinter- 
estedness, and  in  the  obligation  to  render  pub- 
lic service  characterizing  professional  life  that 
amounts  to  unnatural  self-denial  or  painful  renun- 
ciation, —  unless  in  some  extreme  and  individual 
cases.  On  the  contrary,  professional  life  at  its  best 
offers  a  great  advantage  in  so  far  as  it  permits  a 
man  to  think  first  of  the  work  he  is  doing  and  the 
social  service  he  is  rendering,  rather  than  of  pecu- 
niary reward.  I  have  myself  on  more  than  one 
occasion  pointed  out  to  young  men  the  greater 
prospect  for  happiness  in  life  that  comes  with  the 
choice  of  a  calling  in  which  the  work  itself  pri- 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  149 

marily  focuses   the  attention,  and    in  which  the      chap,  iv, 

pecuniary   reward   comes   as   an   incident   rather 

than  as  the  conscious  and  direct  result  of  a  given 

effort. 

The  greatest  pleasure  in  work  is  that  which   What  gives 

comes  from  the  trained  and  regulated  exercise  of  ^  ^^^Y^  ^" 

^  work? 

the  faculty  of  imagination.  In  the  conduct  of 
every  law  case  this  faculty  has  abundant  oppor- 
tunity, as  it  also  has  in  the  efforts  of  the  physi- 
cian to  aid  nature  in  the  restoration  of  health  and 
vigor  in  the  individual,  or  in  the  sanitary  pro- 
tection of  the  community.  I  hope  I  have  made 
clear  this  point :  that  pecuniary  success,  even  in 
large  measure,  in  the  work  of  a  professional  man, 
may  be  entirely  compatible  with  disinterested 
devotion  to  a  kind  of  work  that  makes  for  the 
public  weal,  while  it  is  also  worthy  of  pursuit 
for  its  own  sake,  and  brings  content  and  even 
happiness  in  the  doing.     And  it  is  clear  enough,    The  sense 

in  the  case  of  a  professional  man,  that  he  is  false  "{,?'"  . 

'■  obligation 

to  his  profession  and  to  his  plain  obligations  if 
he  shows  himself  to  be  ruled  by  the  anti-social 
spirit;  that  is  to  say,  if  he  considers  himself  ab- 
solved from  any  duties  toward  the  community 
about  him;  thinks  that  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession is  a  private  affair  for  his  own  profit  and 


150 

CHAP.  IV. 


Increasing 
range  of 
profession- 
alized 
pursuits 


The 

teacher 
above  all 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

advantage,  and  holds  that  he  has  done  his  whole 
duty  when  he  has  escaped  liability  for  malpractice 
or  disbarment. 

But  the   three  oldest  and  best-recognized  pro- 
fessions no  longer  stand  alone,  in  the  estimation 
of  our  higher  educational  authorities  and  of  the 
intelligent    public.     In    a    democracy    like    ours, 
with  a  constantly  advancing  conception  of  what 
is  involved  in  education  for  citizenship  and  for 
participation  in  every  individual  function  of  the 
social  and  economic  life,  the  work  of  the  teacher 
comes   to   be   recognized    as    professional   in   the 
highest  sense.     Teaching,  indeed,  seems  destined 
in  the  near  future  to  become  the  very  foremost 
of    all    the    professions.     This    recognition    will 
come  when  the  idea  takes  full  possession  of  the 
public  mind  that  the  chief  task  of  each  generation 
is  to  train  the   next   one,   and  to  transmit  such 
stores  of  knowledge  and  useful  experience  as  it 
has  received  from  its  predecessors  or  has  evolved 
for  itself. 

It  is  obvious  enough  that  the  work  of  the 
teacher  gives  room  for  the  play  of  the  loftiest 
ideals,  and  that  its  functions  are  essentially  public 
and  disinterested.  But  there  are  other  callings, 
such  as  those  of  the  architect  and  engineer,  which 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  151 

have  also  come  to  be  spoken  of  as  professional       chap.  iv. 
in  their  nature.     Their  kinship  to  the  older  pro-    The 

fessions  has  been  more  readily  recognized  by  the   ^^S^-neer 

and 
men  of  conservative  university  traditions,  because  architect 

much  of  the  preparation  for  these  callings  can 
advantageously  be  of  an  academic  sort.  Archi- 
tecture in  its  historical  aspects  is  closely  asso- 
ciated with  the  study  of  classical  periods;  while 
the  profession  of  the  engineer  relates  itself  to  the 
immemorial  universitv  devotion  to  mathematics. 

And  in  like  manner  the  man  who  for  practical   Scientific 

,  ,         .  1     .   •   •         specialists 

purposes    becomes    a   chemist    or    an    electrician 

would  be  easily  admitted  by  President  Eliot,  for 
example,  to  the  favored  fellowship  of  the  profes- 
sional classes  for  the  reason,  first,  of  the  disci- 
plinary and  liberalizing  nature  of  the  studies 
that  underlie  his  calling,  and  in  the  second  place, 
of  the  public  and  social  aspects  of  the  functions 
he  fulfills  in  the  pursuit  of  his  vocation. 

The  architect,  the  civil  or  mechanical  or  elec-   Callings 
trical  engineer,  and  the  chemist,  as  well  as  the     , 
professional    teacher,    the    trained   librarian,    or   public 
the  journahst  who  carries  on  his  work  with  due 
sense  of  its  almost  unequaled  public  duties  and 
responsibilities,  —  all  these  are  now  admitted  by 
dicta  of  our  foremost  authorities  to  a  place  equal 


152 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Ethical 
codes 
of  these 
callings 


Meaning 
of  the  term 
"  public 
spirit " 


with  the  law,  medicine,  and  the  ministry  in  the 
Hst  of  the  professions ;  that  is  to  say,  in  the  group 
of  calHngs  which,  under  my  definition,  are  dis- 
tinguished especially  by  their  public  character. 
And  in  this  group,  of  course,  should  be  included 
politicians,  legislators,  and  public  administrators 
in  so  far  as  they  serve  the  public  interests  repu- 
tably and  in  a  professional  spirit.  Nor  should 
we  forget  such  special  classes  of  public  servants 
as  the  officers  of  the  army  and  navy ;  while  no- 
body will  deny  public  character  and  professional 
rank  to  men  of  letters,  artists,  musicians,  and 
actors. 

In  all  these  callings  it  is  demanded  not  merely 
that  men  shall  be  subject  to  the  private  rules  of 
conduct,  —  that  they  must  not  cheat,  or  lie,  or 
steal,  or  bear  false  witness,  or  be  bad  neighbors 
or  undesirable  citizens,  —  but  in  addition  and  in 
the  most  important  sense  that  they  shall  be  sub- 
ject to  positive  ethical  standards  that  relate  to  the 
welfare  of  the  whole  community,  and  that  require 
of  them  the  exercise  of  a  true  public  spirit. 

The  man  of  public  spirit  is  he  who  is  able 
at  a  given  moment,  under  certain  conditions,  to 
set  the  public  welfare  before  his  own.  Further- 
more, he  is  a  man  who  is  trained  and  habituated 


THE  BUSLXESS  CAREER  153 

to  that  point  of  view,  so  that  he  is  not  aware  of      chap.  iv. 

any  pangs  of  martyrdom  or  even  of  any  exercise 

of  self-denial  when  he  is  concerning  himself  about 

the    public    good    even    to    his    own    momentary 

inconvenience  or  disadvantage.     Pubhc  spirit  is 

that  state  or  habit  of  mind  which  leads  a  man 

to  care  greatly  for  the  general  welfare.     It  is  this 

ethical  quality  that  to  my  mind  should  be  the 

great  aim  and  object  of  training. 

On   its  best   side,   what   we   term   the   profes-   The  added 
sional  spirit  is,  then,  very  closely  related  to  this     ^V^J^ 
commendable  quality  in  men  of  a  right  intellec-   sional  man 
tual   and   moral  development  that  we  call   pub- 
lic spirit.     The  chief  difference  lies  in  this:   that 
whereas    all    professional    men    may    be    public- 
spirited  in  a  general  sense,  each  professional  man 
should,  in  addition,  manifest  a  special  and  tech- 
nical  sort   of  public   spirit   that   pertains  to  the 
nature  of  his  calling.     The  lawyer  should  have 
a  particularly  keen  regard  for  the  equitable  ad- 
ministration of  justice.     The  doctor  should  truly 
care   for   the    physical    wholesomeness  and   well-   "Public 
being  of  the  community.     The  clergyman  should  ^P'*"'' 
be  alive  to  those  things  that  concern  the  recti-  something 
tude  and  purity  of  life.     The  journalist  should   '""''^ 
be  willing  to  make  sacrifices  for  the  sake  of  the 


154 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Business 
also  must 
assume 
profes- 
sional 
standards 


enlightenment  of  public  opinion;  and  so  on. 
Without  either  the  general  or  the  technical 
manifestations  of  public  spirit,  in  short,  the  so- 
called  professional  man  is  a  reproach  to  his 
guild  and  a  failure  in  his  neighborhood. 

Now,  what  has  all  this  to  do  with  the  moral 
standards  that  belong  to  the  business  career  as 
distinguished  from  the  professional  life .''  My 
answer  must  be  very  clear  and  very  direct  if  I 
am  to  justify  so  long  an  analysis  of  the  ethical 
characteristics  of  the  professions  themselves.  I 
have  merely  used  the  time-honored  method  of 
trying  to  lead  you  by  way  of  familiar,  admitted 
points  of  view  to  certain  points  of  view  that,  if 
not  wholly  new,  are  at  least  less  familiar  and  less 
widely  recognized.  The  whole  thesis  that  I  wish 
to  develop  is  simply  this:  that  however  it  may 
have  been  in  business  life  in  times  past  and  gone, 
there  has  been  such  a  tremendous  change  in  the 
organization  and  methods  of  the  business  world 
and  also  in  the  relative  importance  of  the  func- 
tions of  the  business  man  in  the  community,  that 
the  distinctions  which  have  hitherto  set  apart  the 
professional  classes  have  become  obsolete  for  all 
practical  purposes  in  many  branches  and  depart- 
ments of  the  business  world. 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  155 

At  least,  the  work  of  the  responsible  leaders      chap.  iv. 
is  no  longer  to  be  regarded  as  essentially  a  thing    j^^^ 
of  private  concern  and  free  from  public  responsi-   obligations 
bility.     If  the  business  world  is  not  character-   i,i^siness 
ized,  first,  by  public  spirit  and  a  sense  of  public  leadership 
duty  in  general,  and  second,  by  the  special  and 
technical  sense  of  public  obligation  that  pertains 
to   particular   kinds    or   departments  of   business 
activity,  then  it  is  falling  short  of  its  best  oppor- 
tunities and  evading  its  providential  tasks.     It  is 
for  the  modern  business  world  to  recognize  the 
conditions  that  have  in  the  fulness  of  time  given 
it  so  great  a  power  and  so  dominant  a  position; 
and  it  must  not  shirk  the  responsibilities  that  be- 
long to  it  as  fully  and  truly  as  they  belong  to  any 
of  the  professions. 

I  hold,  then,  that  the  young  man  of  education  The  right 
and  opportunity  who  proposes  to  go  into  a  busi- 
ness  career  enters  it  not  merely  with  a  low  and  un-  success 
worthy  standard  if  his  sole  motive  and  object  be  to 
acquire  wealth,  but  he  also  enters  it  in  disregard 
of  the  ideas  that  fill  the  minds  of  the  best  modern 
business  leaders.  He  shows  a  pitiable  lack  of 
appreciation  of  the  elements  that  are  to  constitute 
real  business  success  in  the  period  within  which 
his  own  career  must  fall. 


156 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 

Evolution 
of  modern 
business 


How  old 

conditions 
have  been 
bettered 


The  days 
when 
poverty 
prevailed 


Let  us  consider,  briefly,  the  evolution  of  our 
present-day  economic  or  business  life,  and  then 
take  note  of  the  necessary  place  that  particular 
classes  of  business  men  must  hold  in  the  structure 
of  our  society.  I,  for  my  part,  look  upon  this  last 
century  of  economic  progress,  —  under  the  sway 
of  what  is  often  called  "  capitalism  "  as  a  term  of 
reproach,  —  as  an  immeasurable  boon  to  man- 
kind. It  began  with  the  practical  utilization  of 
several  great  inventions,  notably  that  of  steam 
power,  which  broke  up  the  old  household  and 
village  industries,  gave  us  the  modern  factory 
system,  and  along  with  the  development  of  rail- 
roads gave  us  the  modern  industrial  city.  This 
new  and  revolutionizing  system  of  industry  and 
business  forced  its  way  into  a  world  of  poverty, 
of  disease,  of  depraved  public  life,  of  low  morals 
in  the  main  pervading  the  community,  —  a  world 
for  the  most  part  of  class  distinctions  in  which 
the  lot  even  of  the  privileged  few  was  not  a  very 
noble  or  enviable  one,  while  the  state  of  the  vast 
majority  was  little  better  than  that  of  serfs. 

Many  writers  have  sought  to  throw  a  charm 
and  a  glamour  over  that  old  condition  of  eco- 
nomic life  and  society  that  followed  the  break-up 
of  feudalism  and  that  preceded  the  creation  of 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  157 

our  new  political  and  industrial  institutions.  But  chap.  iv. 
with  some  mitigations  it  was  for  most  people  a 
period,  as  I  have  said,  of  squalor,  disease,  and 
degradation.  The  fundamental  trouble  could  be 
summed  up  in  the  one  word,  'poverty.  The  mis- 
sion of  the  new  industrial  system,  for  the  most  part 
unconscious  and  unrecognized,  was  to  transform 
the   world   by   abolishing   the   reign    of   poverty.   Mission  of 

Doubtless  it  would  be  desirable  if  the  improve- 

^  system 

ment  of  conditions,  material  and  spiritual,  could 
make  progress  with  exactly  even  pace  on  some 
perfectly  symmetrical  plan.  But  history  shows 
us  that  the  forward  social  movement  has  pro- 
ceeded first  in  one  aspect,  then  in  another,  on 
lines  so  tangential,  often  so  zigzag,  that  it  is  diflB- 
cult  until  one  gets  distance  enough  for  perspective, 
to  see  that  any  true  progress  has  been  made  at  all. 

Thus,  the  modern  industrial  system,  which  The  hard 
found  the  conditions  of  poverty,  disease,  and  ^  ^'  .^J 
hardship  prevalent,  seemed  for  quite  a  long  time, 
in  its  rude  breaking  up  of  old  relations  and  its 
ruthless  adherence  to  certain  newly  proclaimed 
principles,  to  have  brought  matters  from  bad  to 
worse.  The  squalor  and  poverty  of  the  village 
of  hand-loom  weavers  seemed  only  intensified  in 
the  new  industrial  towns  to  which  the  weavers 


158 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 

Early  days 
of  the 
factory 
system 


Necessary 
phases 


Production 
first,  social 
progress 
afterwards 


flocked  from  their  deserted  hamlets.  Manu- 
facturers were  doing  business  under  the  fiercest 
and  most  unregulated  competition.  Economists 
were  demonstrating  their  "  law  of  supply  and 
demand "  and  their  "  iron  law  of  wages "  as 
capable  in  themselves  of  regulating  all  the  con- 
ditions and  relations  of  business  life.  Epidemics 
raged,  and  depravity  prevailed  in  the  new  factory 
centers. 

But  things  were  not,  in  reality,  going  from  bad 
to  worse.  The  beginnings  of  a  better  order  had 
to  be  based  upon  two  things:  first  and  foremost, 
the  sheer  creation  of  capital;  second,  the  disci- 
pline and  training  of  workers.  In  the  first  phases, 
the  new  modern  business  period  had  to  be  a 
period  of  production.  There  had  got  to  be  de- 
veloped the  instrumentalities  for  the  creation  of 
wealth.  Until  the  industrial  system  had  raised 
up  its  class  of  efficient  workers  and  had  created 
its  great  mass  of  capital  for  productive  purposes, 
there  could  be  no  supply  of  cheap  goods;  and 
without  an  abundant  and  cheap  output  there 
could  be  no  possible  diffusion  of  economic  bene- 
fits; in  other  words,  no  marked  amelioration  of 
the  prevailing  poverty. 

It    required    some    development    of   wealth    to 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  159 

lift    our   modern    peoples    out   of   a   poverty   too      chap.  iv. 

grinding    and    too    debasing    for    intellectual    or   q^^^  ^^^ 

moral    progress.     It    is    true    that    the    factory  «^^^  ^"^  i^^ 

new 
towns,  created  as  they  have  all  been  by  modern  ^nethods 

industrial  conditions  during  the  past  century, 
brought  their  distinctive  evils.  There  was  over- 
crowding in  ill-built  tenement  houses;  and  long 
hours  for  women  and  children  in  the  factories. 
Yet  with  these  and  many  other  disadvantages,  the 
new  industrial  system  made  for  discipline  and  for 
intelligence,  and  above  all  for  a  new  kind  of  solidar- 
ity and  for  a  sense  of  brotherhood  among  workers^ 

In  due  time  the  worst  evils  began  to  be  mili-   Growth  of 

...  PI  natural 

gated,   largely  through  the   application   ot   those   remedies 

very  methods  of  organization  which  had  char- 
acterized the  new  kind  of  industry  itself.  Thus 
for  men  who  had  applied  steam  power  to  manu- 
facturinor  and  had  begun  to  build  railroads,  it 
vvas  soon  perceived  to  be  a  matter  not  only  of 
sanitary  and  social  service,  but  of  pecuniary 
profit,  to  provide  water  supplies,  public  illumina- 
tion, and  other  conveniences  to  the  crowded  city 
dwellers.  Moreover,  with  the  progress  of  in- 
dustry and  the  development  of  railroads  and 
steam  navigation,  production  and  trade  took  on 
an  ever-increasing  volume. 


160 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 

There  were 
no  rich 
men 


—  until 
very  recent 
times 


Competi- 
tion and 
the  part  it 
played 


Then  the  world  began  to  be  less  poor.  There 
had  been  no  rich  men  in  the  modern  sense,  and 
of  course  no  such  thing  as  capitalized  corpora- 
tions for  production.  The  richest  man  in  the 
United  States  at  the  time  of  his  death,  a  little 
more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  was  George 
Washington,  with  his  land  and  his  slaves;  and 
so  in  England  and  France  there  were  no  rich 
men  in  the  modern  sense,  that  is  to  say,  no 
men  who  controlled  great  masses  of  productive 
capital.  The  men  of  wealth  were  those  who 
held  landed  estates.  The  chief  business  of  all 
countries  was  agriculture.  The  capitalistic  sys- 
tem in  industry  and  trade  existed  in  its  rudiments 
and  in  limited  measure ;  but  all  its  great  achieve- 
ments were  yet  to  be  wrought. 

All  modern  business  life,  then,  is  the  result  of 
this  grovsi;h  of  productive  capital,  and  its  appli- 
cation and  constant  reapplication  to  the  pro- 
duction of  wealth.  It  made  its  way  by  virtue  of 
an  intense  individual  initiative  and  a  fierce  com- 
petitive struggle.  But  unlovely  as  were  these 
things,  many  of  their  phases  were  necessary  at  a 
certain  stage.  It  was  this  fierce  competition  that 
compelled  capital  to  pay  the  lowest  possible 
wages    in    order   to    market    cheap   goods.     But 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  161 

the  same  situation  stimulated  the  use,  one  after      chap.  iv. 
another,  of  new  labor-saving  inventions  in  order 
to  increase  the  per  capita  productivity.     This  pro-   As  respects 
cess  was  attended  by  the  higher  efficiency  of  the    ^ 
worker  and  an  increase  in  his  earning  capacity. 
As  his   position   began   to   improve,   the   worker 
gained   some  hope   and   cheer;    and   he  and  his 
fellows   began   to   organize,  with   the   result   that 
both  wages  and  conditions  of  labor  were  steadily 
improved,  and  the  workman  began  to  attain  ap- 
proximately his  share  of  benefits. 

All  this  is  a  familiar  story,  although  the  depth   A  change 

of  its  significance  is  beyond  the  compass  of  any     ^^^^ 

°  *'  i  ^     compre- 

living  human  intelligence.  It  is  easy  to  say  in  a  hension 
glib  sentence  that  the  amount  of  wealth  pro- 
duced every  few  years  nowadays  is  equal  to  all 
the  accumulated  wealth  of  all  the  centuries  down 
to  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth ;  but  the  social 
meaning  of  so  great  a  change  baffles  all  attempt 
at  full  comprehension. 

The   competitive   system,   which  had    been  es-    The  com- 

sential  to  the  launching  of  this  modern  period  of  P«'^f^^« 

°  period 

production,  and  which  had  given  to   it  so  much   sclf-Umit- 
of  its  irresistible  momentum,   at   length  brought   ^"3 
the  economic  organization  to  a  point  of  develop- 
ment   where,    in    some    fields    of    production,    it 


162 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV.  was  no  longer  a  benefit.  The  accumulation  of 
capital  had  become  so  large  —  and  with  new 
inventions  the  possible  output  had  become  so 
abundant  —  that  it  was  well-nigh  impossible  to 
trust  to  the  blind  working  of  demand  and  supply 
to  regulate  things  in  a  beneficial  way.  It  began 
to  dawn  on  men's  minds  that  a  successful  period 
of  competitive  economic  life  might  lead  to  a 
period  largely  dominated  by  non-competitive  and 
cooperative  principles. 

The  idea  The  superior  possibilities  of  this  newest  regime, 

oj  a     e  er  ^^^^^^  ^j^-j^  j^g  many  difficulties  and  perplexities, 
system  '^  ''  ^      ^ 

began  to  captivate  the  minds,  not  merely  of  theo- 
retical students  and  onlookers,  but,  even  more,  of 
great  masters  of  industry  and  productive  capital. 
It  began  to  be  seen  that  in  place  of  blind  and 
fierce  competition  as  a  regulator  of  prices  and  as 
an  equalizer  of  supply  and  demand,  there  might 
come  to  be  gradually  substituted  some  more  con- 
sciously scientific  methods  of  business  administra- 
tion and  of  the  adjustment  of  production  to  the 
needs  of  the  market. 

Furthermore,  with  the  development  of  business 
on  the  great  scale,  capital  had  become  relatively 
abundant  and  cheap,  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
labor  was  becoming  relatively  expensive  and  exact- 


Capital 

relatively 

abundant 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  163 

ing.     It  was  evident  that  the  modern  system  of      ch  ai>.  v. 

industry  had   passed    through    its   carher   period 

to   one   of   comparative   maturity;   and   that   the 

problem    of    wealth    production    was    no    longer 

so    exclusively    the    pressing    one,    but    that    the 

problems   of  distribution  were  demanding  more 

attention. 

How  to   organize   business   life   on   a  basis   at   Business 

once  stable  and  efficient;  how  to  see  that  capital  P''^^^^"'^ 

take  on  a 

was  assured  of  a  normal  even  though  a  declining  public 
percentage  of  dividends,  while  labor  should  be  ^^^''"'^'^ 
rewarded  according  to  its  capacity  and  desert,  — 
were  problems  which  took  on  public  rather  than 
private  aspects.  And  when  the  business  Avorld 
began  to  face  these  problems  with  the  conscious- 
ness that  they  were  to  be  met,  it  had  virtually 
passed  over  from  the  lower  plane  of  moral  and 
social  responsibility  to  the  higher  plane,  where 
what  the  directing  minds  do  or  decide  is  not 
measured  solely  by  immediate  results  in  money 
getting,  but  also  by  the  test  of  larger  social  and 
public  utilities. 

Although  these  conditions  are  not  novel  ones.   Railroads 

and  are  therefore  not  difficult  to  grasp  even  when   "'^  "" 

instance 

stated   in   general  terms,  it   is  still  true  that  the 
concrete   often   helps  to   make  the   point   appear 


164 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Public  and 

private 

aspects 


The  fight 
against 
public 
regulation 


more  pertinent.  Take,  then,  the  railroad  busi- 
ness as  it  is  now  shaping  itself,  in  comparison 
with  its  conditions  and  methods  twenty  or  thirty 
years  ago.  The  railroads  have  always  existed 
by  virtue  of  charters  which  gave  them  a  quasi- 
public  character,  and  have  always  been  theo- 
retically subject  to  certain  old  principles  of 
English  common  law  under  which  the  public 
or  common  carrier,  like  the  innkeeper,  performs  a 
function  not  wholly  private  in  its  nature.  Never- 
theless, in  its  earlier  stages  the  railroad  system 
of  this  country  was  in  large  part  constructed 
and  operated  by  its  projectors  with  no  sense 
whatever  of  responsibility  for  their  performance 
of  public  functions,  but  with  the  idea  that  they 
were  carrying  on  their  own  private  business,  in 
which  interference  on  the  part  of  the  public  was 
to  be  avoided  and  resented.  They  fought  the 
railroad  codes  of  state  legislatures  in  the  federal 
courts;  they  made  oppressive  rates  to  give  value 
to  new  issues  of  watered  stock ;  they  discriminated 
in  favor  of  one  city  and  against  another;  by  a 
system  of  secret  rebates  they  made  different 
terms  with  every  shipper,  thus  enabling  a  mer- 
chant or  a  manufacturer  to  destroy  his  com- 
petitors ;   and  they  pursued  in  general  a  career  at 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  165 

least  anti-social  in  its  spirit  and  false  and  short-      chap.  iv. 
sighted  in  its  principles. 

A    profound     change  —  would     that     it    were    The 
already  complete  !  —  is  coming  about  in  this  great  ^  ""?^ 
field  of  transportation  business.     It  is  perceived   coming 
that  many  of  the  evils  to  which  I  have  alluded 
were  incident  to  the  speculative  periods  of  con- 
struction   and    development    in    a    new    country. 
The    better   leaders    in    the    business    of   railway 
administration  now  see  clearly  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  railroads  to  work  with  and  for  the  public 
and  not  against  it.     The  railroads  are  gradually 
passing  out  of  the  hands  of  the  stockjobbers  and 
speculators,  into  the  control  of  trained  adminis- 
trators.    It  is  to  be  remembered  that  in  a  coun- 
try like  ours,  the  largest  single  branch  of  organ- 
ized administration  is  that  of  the  railroads.     We   Railroads 

have  reached  a  point  where  their  relations  to  all   '^^^  largest 

organized 

the  elaborate  interests  of  the  community  are  such  interest 
that  their  public  character  becomes  more  and 
more  pronounced  and  evident.  It  was  only  the 
other  day  that  a  brilliant  railway  administrator, 
Mr.  Charles  S.  Mellen,  recently  president  of  the 
Northern  Pacific,  and  now  president  of  the  New 
York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  system,  made 
some   statements   in   an   address  to  the  business 


should  rule 
now  " 


166  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  IV.  nien  of  Hartford  at  a  Board  of  Trade  meeting. 
With  much  else  of  the  same  import,  he  made 
the  following  significant  remarks :  — 

"  Publicity  "  If  corporations  are  to  continue  to  do  their 
work  as  they  are  best  fitted  to,  those  qualities  in 
their  representatives  that  have  resulted  in  the 
present  prejudice  against  them  must  be  relegated 
to  the  background. 

"They  must  come  out  into  the  open  and  see 
and  be  seen.  They  must  take  the  public  into 
their  confidence  and  ask  for  what  they  want  and 
no  more,  and  then  be  prepared  to  explain  satis- 
factorily what  advantage  will  accrue  to  the  pub- 
lic if  they  are  given  their  desires,  for  they  are 
permitted  to  exist  not  that  they  may  make  money 
solely,  but  that  they  may  effectively  serve  those 
from  whom  they  derive  their  power.     Publicity 

Public  should    rule    now.     Publicity,    and    not    secrecy, 

ownership     ^^j^   ^-^^  hereafter,   and   laws  will   be   construed 
the  alterna- 
tive by  their    intent   and    not   killed   hj  their   letter; 

otherwise    public    utilities    will    be    owned    and 

operated  by  the  public  which  created  them,  even 

though  the  service  be  less  eflScient  and  the  result 

less  satisfactory  from  a  financial  standpoint." 

Mr.    Mellen's    state    of    mind    is    that    which 

ought  to  prevail  among  all  the  managers  of  cor- 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  167 

porations  which  enjoy  pubhc  franchises  and  per-  chap.  iv. 
form  functions  fundamental  to  the  welfare  of 
the  community.  There  will  at  times  be  prejudice 
and  passion  on  the  part  of  the  public,  and  unfair 
demands  will  be  made.  We  shall  not  see  the 
attainment  of  ideal  conditions  in  the  management 
or  the  public  relations  of  any  great  business  cor- 
porations  in   our  day.     But  the  time  has  come   a.  system 

when  any  intelligent  and  capable  young  man  who   ^^'^^  '^  ^^^ 

public 

chooses  to  enter  the  service  of  a  railroad  or  of  welfare 
some  other  great  corporation  may  rightly  feel  that 
he  becomes  part  of  a  system  whose  operation  is 
vital  to  the  public  welfare.  He  may  further  feel 
that  there  is  room  in  such  a  calling  for  all  his 
intelligence  and  for  the  exercise  and  growth  of 
all  the  best  sentiments  of  his  moral  nature. 

In  the  vast  mechanism  of  modern  business  the    The 

constructive  imagination  may  find   its  full  plav;     ^      ,     . 

^  •'  1      -       standards 

and  the  desire  to  be  of  service  to  one's  fellow-  of  railway 

men  in  a  spirit  reasonably  disinterested  may  find   ^    ^. 

r  •/  -J  tration 

opportunity  to  satisfy  itself  every  day.  Under 
these  circumstances  there  is  no  reason  why  rail- 
way administration  should  not  take  on  the  same 
ethical  standards  as  belong  rightly  to  govern- 
mental administration,  to  educational  adminis- 
tration, or  to  the  best  professional  life. 


168 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 


of  finance 


Social 

ethics  of 
hanking 


The  same  thing  is  clearly  true  when  one  con- 
In  the  field  aiders  nowadays  the  delicate  and  important  func- 
tions of  the  world  of  banking  and  finance.  The 
old-fashioned  money  changer  and  the  usurer  of 
earlier  periods  were  regarded  as  the  very  antith- 
eses of  men  engaged  in  honorable  mercantile 
life,  and  especially  of  those  who  possess  a  social 
spirit  and  the  desire  to  be  useful  members  of  the 
community.  But  in  these  days  the  banks  are 
not  merely  private  money-making  institutions,  but 
have  public  functions  that  admittedly  affect  the 
whole  social  organism,  from  the  government  itself 
down  to  the  humblest  laborer.  They  must  con- 
cern themselves  about  the  soundness  and  the  suffi- 
ciency of  the  monetary  circulation;  they  must 
protect  the  credit  and  foster  the  welfare  of  hon- 
est merchants  and  manufacturers;  they  must 
cooperate  in  critical  times  to  help  one  another, 
and  thus  to  sustain  the  public  and  private  credit 
and  avert  commercial  disaster;  they  must  at  all 
hazards  protect  the  savings  of  the  poor.  Thus 
the  banks,  like  the  railroads  and  many  other 
corporate  enterprises,  are  quasi-public  affairs,  in 
the  conduct  of  which  the  public  obligation  grows 
ever  clearer  and  stronger. 

We  are  not  at  heart  —  in  this  splendid  coun- 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  169 

try  of  ours  —  engaged  in  a  mad  struggle  and  race      chap.  iv. 
for  wealth.     We  are  engaged  rather  in  the  great-   q^^.  ^^^  , 

est  effort  ever  made  in  the  world  for  the  upbuild-   ^^^  /«'" 

p        ,  .   ,  ......  rrt  1  1  •      civilization 

Hig  ot   a  higher  civilization.       lo  avow  that  this 

civilization  must  rest  upon  a  physical  and  material 

basis  —  that  is  to  say,  upon  a  high  development 

of  our  productive  capacity  and  upon  a  constant 

improvement  in  our  processes  of  distribution  and 

exchange  —  is  not,  on  the  other  hand,  to  confess 

that  our  civilization  is  materialistic  in  its  nature 

or  in  its  aims.     I  was  very  glad,  not  long  ago,   "Convert 

to  read  the  wholesome  and  understanding  words   "'^", 

»  to  the 

of  a  distinguished  clergyman.  He  declared  that  service  of 
this  nation  was  founded  on  an  ideal,  and  that  the  *  ^"  ^ 
most  powerful  influences  in  its  life  to-day  are 
working  toward  noble  ideals.  The  moral  and 
spiritual  tone  of  the  country,  he  asserted,  is  higher 
than  ever,  in  spite  of  the  accidents  of  wealth  and 
poverty.  He  declared  that  the  great  host  of 
men  and  women  who  cherish  our  ideals  will 
continue  to  stamp  idealism  upon  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  our  youth,  and  that  they  in  turn  "will 
convert  wealth  to  the  service  of  ideals." 

Such  views  are  not  merely  the  expressions  of 
a  comfortable  optimist.  They  are  true  to  the 
facts   of   our   current   progress.     There   are   vast 


170 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 

Fertilizers 

and 

idealism 


Cotton 
mills  as 
evangels 


Poverty 
as  the 
common 
foe 


portions  of  this  country  to-day  in  which  the  en- 
terprising business  man  who  can  succeed  in 
selHng  to  the  farmers  an  honest  and  effective 
commercial  fertiUzer  is  the  best  possible  mis- 
sionary of  idealism,  —  is,  in  fact,  a  veritable  angel 
for  the  spread  of  sweetness  and  light.  There 
are  regions  where  the  capitalist  or  the  company 
that  will  build  a  cotton  mill  or  some  other  kind 
of  factory  is  rescuing  whole  communities  from 
degradation.  It  is  poverty  that  has  kept  the 
South  so  backward,  and  it  is  poverty  alone  that 
explains  the  illiteracy  and  the  lawlessness  not 
merely  of  the  Kentucky  mountains,  but  of  great 
areas  in  other  states  as  well.  Good  schools  can- 
not be  supported  in  regions  like  those,  for  the 
palpable  reason  that  the  taxable  wealth  of  an 
entire  school  district  cannot  yield  enough  to  pay 
the  salary  of  a  teacher.  But  when  modern 
business  invades  those  uplands,  utilizes  the  water 
power  now  wasted,  opens  the  mines,  builds  cot- 
ton factories  or  foundries,  the  situation  changes 
almost  as  if  by  magic. 

There  will,  indeed,  ensue  a  brief  period  of 
disturbance  due  to  changed  social  condition,  — 
to  women  and  children  in  factories,  and  other 
things  of  incidental  or  serious  disadvantage.     But, 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  171 

as  against  a  survival  of  the  sort  of  life  that  was      chap.  iv. 

widely  prevalent  a  century  or  two  ago,  all  the   Magical 

phenomena  of  our  modern  industrial  life  make  ^^(^"'^M"^' 
'  ations 

their  appearance,  in  full  development.  The  one- 
room  cabin  gives  place  to  the  little  house  of 
several  rooms.  There  is  rapid  diffusion  of  those 
minor  comforts  and  agencies  which  make  for 
self-respect  and  personal  and  family  advance- 
ment. The  advent  of  capital,  that  is  to  say,  of 
taxable  property,  is  speedily  followed  by  the  good 
schoolhouse  and  the  good  teacher. 

It  is  instructive  to  note  the  transformation  that 
is  thus  taking  place  in  one  county  after  another 
of  the  Carolinas,  or  Georgia,  or  others  of  the 
Southern  states,  because  the  conditions  make  it  Best  seen 
possible  to  witness  within  a  single  decade  the  ^"'  ^  ^^^ 
triumph  of  those  business  forces  which,  while 
they  have  even  more  truly  and  completely  trans- 
formed the  prosperous  parts  of  America  and 
Europe,  have  operated  more  gradually  through 
longer  periods,  and  therefore  in  a  less  easily 
perceived  and  dramatic  fashion. 

Our  modern  ideals  have  required,  not  the 
refinement  and  the  culture  of  the  select  few,  but 
the  uplifting  and  progress  of  the  multitude.  This 
could  only  be  possible  through  a  general  devel- 


172 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 

Cost  of 
uplifting 
the  many 


The 

capitalist 
and  the 
community 
he  serves 


opment  of  wealth,  so  vast  in  comparison  with 
what  had  previously  existed  as  to  constitute  the 
most  highly  revolutionary  fact  in  the  history 
of  human  civilization  and  progress.  The  man, 
therefore,  who  has  a  clear  perception  of  those 
laws  of  mind  and  of  society  under  which  mod- 
ern economic  forces  have  been  set  at  work,  can- 
not for  a  moment  think  that  the  end  and  outcome 
of  this  modern  business  system  is  a  new  kind  of 
human  bondage,  "the  rich  growing  richer  and 
the  poor  growing  poorer";  or  that  it  can  mean 
any  such  thing  as  the  elevation  of  property  at 
the  expense  of  manhood. 

Even  if  it  were  a  part  of  my  subject  to  dis- 
cuss the  growth  of  vast  individual  fortunes  as  an 
incident  of  this  modern  development  of  wealth, 
which  it  is  not,  there  would  be  no  time  for  more 
than  a  passing  allusion.  And  in  making  such  an 
allusion,  I  might  be  content  to  call  attention  to 
my  earlier  dictum,  that  progress  is  not  upon 
direct  lines,  but  tangential  or  zigzag.  When  the 
factory  appears  on  the  Piedmont  slopes  of  the 
Appalachian  country,  it  may  indeed  make  a 
fortune  for  the  missionary  of  civilization  who 
planted  it  there.  But  meanwhile  it  has  given 
the  whole  neighborhood  its  first  chance  to  relate 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  173 

itself  to  the  civilized   world.     I  am  content  for      chap.  iv. 
the  present  to  leave  that  neighborhood  in  posses- 
sion of  its  opportunities,  serenely  confident  that 
it  will  in  due  time  work  out  its  own  completer 
destinv. 

When  the  capitalist  has  retired  from  the  scene 
of  his  exploitation,  will  the  day  arrive  when  the 
regenerated  neighborhood  will  own  that  factory, 
and  others,  too,  for  itself?  Very  likely.  In  any 
case,  the  neighborhood  has  been  emancipated 
from  its  worst  disadvantages. 

In  short,  I  have  little  doubt  but  that  the  further  A  wider 
progress  of  our  civilization  will  give  effect  to  cer- 
tain  economic  laws  and  tendencies,  and  to  certain  evitable 
social  rules  and  principles,  that  will  make  for  a 
higher  measure  of  equality  in  the  distribution  of 
realized  wealth.  Meanwhile,  wherever  a  practical 
step  can  be  taken  to  remedy  an  evil,  let  us  do 
what  we  can  to  promote  that  step.  Let  us  recog- 
nize the  already  great  possibilities  for  useful  par- 
ticipation in  the  social  and  public  life  that  belong 
to  an  honorable  business  career. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  intellectual  interest 
of  the  young  man  going  into  business,  let  it  be 
borne  in  mind  that  there  are  scientific  principles 
underlying  every  branch   of  trade   or  commerce 


174 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 


The  play  of 
fancy  in 
humdrum 
pursuits 


Intelli- 
gence and 
the 

genuine 
product 


or  industry,  and  that  there  is  almost,  if  not  quite, 
as  much  room  for  the  dehghtful  play  of  the 
faculty  of  imagination  in  the  successful  conduct 
of  a  soap  business  as  in  writing  poetry  or  in 
making  statuary  groups  for  world's  fairs.  The 
cultivation  of  public  spirit  in  the  broad  sense, 
and  the  determination  to  be  an  all-round  good 
and  efficient  citizen  and  member  of  the  commu- 
nity, will  often  help  a  man  amazingly  to  discern 
the  opportunities  for  usefulness  that  lie  in  the 
direct  line  of  his  business  work.  The  more 
thoroughly  he  studies  underlying  principles  — 
whether  of  a  technical  sort  as  related  to  his  own 
trade,  or  of  a  general  sort  having  to  do  with  the 
organization  and  general  methods  of  commerce  — 
the  less  likely  he  will  be  to  take  narrow  and  anti- 
social views  of  business  life-  The  high  develop- 
ment of  his  intelligence  in  relation  to  his  own 
work  will  show  him  the  value  in  his  business  — 
as  in  all  else  in  life  —  of  the  standard  thing,  the 
genuine  thing,  the  thing  that  will  bear  the  test  as 
contrasted  with  the  shoddy,  or  the  inferior,  or 
the  spurious. 

Our  technological  schools,  our  colleges  of  me- 
chanic arts,  our  institutes  of  agriculture  and  their 
related  experiment  stations,  —  these  are  all  teach- 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  175 

ing   us   many   valuable   object-lessons   regarding      chap.  iv. 
the  way  in  which  the  wealth  of  the  individual  Scientific 

and  that  of  the  community  can  both,  at  the  same        ^    .  , 

•^  material 

time,  be  advanced  by  scientific  methods.  Thus  progress 
it  is  coming  about  that  business  life  is  ever  more 
ready  to  welcome  the  most  highly  trained  kinds 
of  intelligence,  inasmuch  as  it  is  perceived  that 
specialized  knowledge  is  henceforth  to  be  the 
most  valuable  commodity  that  a  man  can  possess. 
I  have  already  said  that  the  delicate  problems 
of  distribution  must  be  faced  ever  more  frankly 
and  liberally  by  the  modern  business  world. 
Thus,  those  who  control  capital,  or  administer 
capitalized  enterprises,  cannot  afford  any  longer 
to  be  without  a  knowledge  of  the  history  and 
significance  of  the  labor  movement.  I  am  speak- 
ing now  from  the  standpoint  of  the  business  man. 
There  is  much  to  be  said,  doubtless,  in  respect   ^q^qj-'s 

to  the  shortcomings  and  the  sometimes  fatuous  history  and 

1  ••11  1      1       <•    1      1  1  •  destiny 

and  even  suicidal  methods  ot  the  labor  organiza- 
tions. But  for  the  modern  business  man  who 
cares  to  take  his  place  influentially  in  commerce, 
in  social  life,  and  as  a  man  among  men  in  his 
city  or  his  commonwealth,  it  is  no  longer  justifi- 
able to  be  unfamiliar  with  the  labor  question  in 
its  economics  and  its  history. 


176 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


The 

higher 
schools  can 
train  in 
principles 


CHAP.  IV.  Herein  lies  one  great  service  that  the  univer- 

sity can  perform  (and  our  best  colleges  and  uni- 
versities  are   to-day   performing   it   with   marked 
intelligence  and  ability),  the  service,  namely,  of 
providing  very  liberal  courses  for  young  men  who 
expect  to  go  into  business,  in  the  general  science 
of  economics,  in  the  history  of  modern  economic 
progress,  in  the  development  of  the  wage  system, 
in  the  history  and  methods  of  organized  labor, 
and  in  very  much  else  that  helps  to  place  the  life 
of   a   practical   man   of   business   affairs   upon   a 
broad   and   liberal  basis.     In   the   early  days   of 
our  history   it  was  the  especial  function   of  the 
college  to  train  young  men  for  the  ministry.     In 
a  somewhat  later  period  it  was  notably  true  of 
institutions   like   Yale    and   Princeton   that   their 
training  seemed  to  fit  many  men  for  the  law  and 
for   statecraft.     We   had,   you   see,   passed   from 
that  theocratic  phase  of  colonial  New  England 
life   to   the    political   constructive    period    of   our 
young  republic. 

rpfig  But  we  have  been   passing  on  until  we  have 

university     Q^Q^ged  in   a  great   and  transcendent  period   of 

and  , 

modern         commercial    expansion    and    scientific    discovery 

^^•^^  and  application.     It  is  a  hopeful  sign,  therefore, 

that  our  universities  are  finding  out  and  admitting 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  177 

the  demand  that  present-day  conditions  impose,  chap.  iv. 
and  are  training  many  men  in  the  pursuit  of 
modern  science,  while  they  are  training  many 
others  in  the  understanding  of  the  appHcation  of 
social  and  economic  principles  to  modern  life. 
All  this  they  are  doing  and  can  well  do  without 
iornorinir  the  value  of  the  older  forms  of  scholar- 
ship  and  culture. 

But  I  have  a  few  remarks  to  make  also  upon 
the  ethical  relations  of  the  business  world  of  to- 
day toward  the  political  world;  that  is  to  say, 
toward  organized  government,  whether  in  its 
sovereign  or  in  its  subordinate  forms.  We  can- 
not  take  too  high  a  ground  in  proclaiming  the 
value,  for  the  present,  at  least,  of  the  political 
organization  of  society.  I  should  like  to  dwell  The  State 
upon  this  point,  but  I  must  merely  state  it.  If  '^"^  /  *  ^"^ 
the  State,  —  i.e.  the  political  form  of  social  or- 
ganization —  is  valuable,  it  stands  to  reason  that 
it  must  be  respected  and  maintained  at  its  best. 
It  '\s  also  obvious  that  it  will  have  a  higher  or  a 
lower  character  and  efficiency,  according  to  the 
attitude  toward  it  taken  by  one  or  another  of 
the  dominant  factors  that  make  up  the  complex 
body  politic. 

Thus,  for  example,  it  is  the  feeling  of  men  in 

N 


178 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 

Need  of 
loyalty  to 
govern- 
ment 


Business 
forces 
must  be 
patriotic 


Public 
interests  too 
often  in 
weak  hands 


control  of  the  political  organization  in  Franct; 
to-day  that  the  Church,  as  a  great  factor  in  th  i 
social  structure  of  the  nation,  is  essentially  hostih 
to  the  spirit  and  purposes  of  a  liberal  republic. 
Hence  a  great  disturbance  of  various  relation- 
ships. I  do  not  cite  that  instance  to  express 
even  the  shade  of  an  opinion.  My  point  is  that 
if  the  political  organization  of  society  is  desirable 
and  to  be  maintained,  it  is  a  fortunate  thing  when 
one  jBnds  the  dominant  forces  of  society  render- 
ing loyal  and  faithful  support  to  the  laws  and  in- 
stitutions of  government  and  recognizing  without 
reserve  the  sovereignty  of  the  State.  Yet  in  our 
own  country  there  is  a  widespread  feeling  that 
many  of  the  most  potent  forces  and  agencies  in 
our  business  life  are  not  wholly  patriotic,  in  that 
they  are  not  willing  in  practice  to  recognize  the 
necessity  of  the  domination  of  government  and 
of  law.  I  do  not  believe  that  this  is  permanently 
and  generally  true.  It  would  constitute  a  great 
danger  if  it  were  a  fixed  or  a  growing  tendency. 

As  matters  stand,  however,  every  one  must 
admit  that  there  is  an  element  of  danger  that  lies 
in  the  very  fact  that  as  a  nation  we  are  in  a  con- 
dition of  peace,  content,  and  prosperity,  and  do 
not  find  our  political  institutions  irksome.     The 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  179 

danger  consists  in  this:    that  under  such  circum-      chap.  iv. 

stances  the  rewards  of  business  and  professional 

hfe  are  for  the  most  part  so  much  more  certain 

and  satisfactory  than  those  which  come  from  the 

jM'ecarious  pursuit  of  poUtics,  that  pubhc  interests 

have  a  tendency  to  suffer  from   being   in   weak 

hands,  while  private  interests  have  a  tendency  to 

assert  themselves  unduly,  from  being  in  the  hands 

of  men  of  superior  force.     Thus  it  happens  that   State's 

it  is  often  difficult  for  the  State  to  maintain  that  "'^"'"'■2/ 

must  be 

dignity,  that  mastery,  that  high  position,  as  the   maintained 

impartial  arbiter  and  dispenser  of  justice,  which 

it  is  now  even  more  necessary  than  ever  that  it 

should  maintain,   in  order  that  the  whole  social 

organization  should  keep  a  true  harmony  and  a 

safe  balance. 

At    present,    the    State    is    largely    concerned    it 

with  the  maintenance  of  conditions  under  which   ^^^'«''['««^s 

conditions 
the    economic    and    business    life    may    operate   of  pros- 

equally  and  prosperously.  The  State  in  one  P^"^y 
sense  is  the  master  of  the  people.  In  another 
sense  it  is  merely  their  creature  and  their  agent 
for  such  purposes  as  they  choose  to  assign  it. 
Is  the  State,  then,  to  absorb  the  industrial  func- 
tions, and  are  we  to  develop  into  a  socialistic 
commonwealth  ?     Or,   shall  the  political  democ- 


180 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Business 
interests 
need  strong 
govern- 
ment 


Vital  to 

economic 

progress 


racy  and  the  cooperative  organization  of  business 
life  go  on  side  by  side,  related  at  many  points, 
but  in  the  main  distinct  from  each  other  ?  What- 
ever the  relation  of  the  State  to  industry  may  be 
destined  to  become  in  the  distant  future,  we  may 
be  sure  that  there  will  be  no  rash  upheavals, 
no  harmful  socialistic  experiments,  if  the  potent 
business  world  clearly  sees  how  necessary  to  its 
own  salvation  it  is  that  the  State  shall  be  main- 
tained upon  a  high  plane  of  dignity  and  honor,  and 
that  the  official  dispensation  of  justice,  as  well 
as  the  official  administration  of  the  laws,  shall  be 
prompt,  just,  and  impartial. 

There  is  no  higher  duty,  therefore,  incumbent 
upon  the  business  man  of  to-day  than  to  bear  his 
part  in  promoting  and  maintaining  the  purity  of 
political  life.  The  modern  business  man  should 
regard  good  government  as  one  of  the  vital 
conditions  of  the  best  economic  progress.  Yet 
scores  of  instances  are  at  hand  that  show  to 
what  a  painful  extent  certain  business  interests 
again  and  again,  for  purposes  of  immediate  ad- 
vantage, —  to  secure  a  franchise,  to  escape  a  tax, 
or  to  procure  some  improper  favor  or  advantage 
at  the  hands  of  those  in  political  authority,  — 
have  employed  corrupt  methods  and  thus  stained 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  181 

the  fair  escutcheon  of  American  business  honor,      chap.  iv. 
while  breaking  down  the  one  most  indispensable 
condition  of  general  business  progress ;    namely, 
honest  and  efficient  free  government. 

I    will    not    dwell    upon    these    things.     It    is   Better 

enough  to  say  that  they  are  things  the  modern 

b  J  J  o  govern- 

business  man  must  have  upon  his  conscience,  ment 
For,  if  such  offenses  come  by  way  of  the  business 
world,  their  remedies  must  also  come,  and  in- 
deed can  only  come,  by  that  same  path.  In  our 
municipal  life,  for  example,  it  is  the  aroused 
interest  and  zeal  of  the  best  business  community 
for  better  government  and  better  conditions  that 
can  alone  produce  important  results.  Happily, 
all  over  the  country  we  find  chambers  of  com- 
merce, boards  of  trade,  merchants'  associations,    The  civic 

and    other  bodies   of   men   of   practical   business     "  ^  ^•' 

^  business 

affairs,  taking  their  stand  for  the  transaction  of  men 
public  business  upon  high  standards  of  character 
and  efficiency.  I  have  no  doubt  or  fears  as  to 
what  the  result  will  be.  All  of  our  large  cities 
are  themselves  purely  the  creations  of  modern  in- 
dustrial, commercial,  and  transportation  condi- 
tions. And  I  hold  that  these  very  forces  of  in- 
dustrial and  commercial  life  that  have  created  the 
problems   by   bringing  together  great   masses   of 


182 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 


What  can 
be  done 
for  the 
towns 


A  field 
especially 
for  men 
of  affairs 


people  in  crowded  communities,  must  and  can 
in  turn  solve  the  problems  by  the  application  to 
municipal  government  of  the  scientific  and  in- 
telligent principles  which  belong  to  the  best 
phases  of  business  life. 

All  of  this  relates  to  my  subject;    but  I  must 
pass  it  by  with  a  mere  statement  or  two.     It  be- 
longs to  the  developed  constructive  imagination 
and  to  the  trained  ethical  sense  of  the  modern 
business  man  to  perfect  the  transit  systems,  to 
improve  the  housing  conditions,  to  assure  cheap 
sanitary  w^ater  supplies,  cheap  illumination,  and, 
above  all,  due  provision  for  universal  education, 
parks,   museums,    and    opportunities   for   recrea- 
tion, —  in  short,  all  possible  improvements  of  en- 
vironment that  can  make  life  in  our  cities  not 
merely  endurable  but  beneficial  for  the  people. 
Here,   then,    is   furnished   a   great   field   for  the 
definite  and  conscious  aspirations  of  the  success- 
ful man   of  business.     Here   lies  a  great,  many- 
sided    work    for    social    and    moral    as    well    as 
physical   and   material  progress  which  the  busi- 
ness man,  in  the  quality  of  good  citizen  and  man 
of  public  spirit,  is  fitted  better  than  any  one  else 
to  accomplish. 

The   intelligent  young  man  who  holds  before 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  183 

himself  ideals  of  usefulness  that  extend  to  such      chap.  iv. 
projects  as  these,  may  be  sure  that  the  modern   The  great 

conditions  of  life  will  bring  him  great  opportuni-   opportuni- 
ties before 
ties,  and  he  may  feel  that  he  is  thus  lifting  his   young  men 

business  career  up  to  the  plane  of  idealism  that 
has,  in  the  past,  been  reserved  for  a  few  exclu- 
sive professions.  Partly  through  his  own  endeav- 
ors —  largely  through  association  in  commercial 
or  other  organizations  with  his  neighbors  —  he 
may  help  to  accomplish  for  the  benefit  of  all  his 
fellow-men  of  a  great  community  one  step  after 
another  in  the  direction  of  public  works  that  will 
meet  the  needs  of  a  high  civilization. 

Some  of  the  most  useful  men,  as  well  as  the    The  high 

ti/uc  of 
most  unselfish  and  devoted,  with  whom  I  come   j^^y^^^i^an 

in  contact  are  successful  business  men  of  large  business 
affairs.  They  are  modest  and  unassuming; 
simple  and  direct  in  their  methods;  wide  as 
the  world  in  their  sympathies;  lofty  as  the  stars 
in  their  aspirations  for  human  progress;  saga- 
cious beyond  other  classes  of  men,  and  respected  to 
the  point  of  veneration  by  those  who  know  them 
well,  because  they  are  men  of  deeds  rather  than 
of  words,  who  make  good  their  professions  from 
day  to  day.  Business  has  not  so  narrowed  them, 
nor  has  devotion  to  philanthropic  ends  or  public 


man 


184 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 


The  ethics 
of  action 


reforms  so  distorted  their  mental  visions,  that 
they  are  not  able  to  enjoy  what  is  good  in  life, 
whether  books,  music,  pictures,  the  companion- 
ship of  friends,  or  the  restful  contact  with  nature 
in  field  and  forest. 

The  lives  of  such  men  are  dominated  by 
certain  fixed  ethical  standards.  Given  such 
moral  landmarks,  the  remarkable  conditions  and 
unequaled  opportunities  of  modern  business  life 
will  promote  the  frequent  development  of  men  of 
this  kind,  with  their  breadth  of  view  and  strength 
of  mind  and  character.  It  is  the  positive  and 
aggressive  attitude  toward  life,  the  ethics  of  ac- 
tion, rather  than  the  ethics  of  negation,  that  must 
control  the  modern  business  world,  and  that  may 
make  our  modern  business  man  the  most  potent 
factor  for  good  in  this,  his  own,  industrial  period. 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES 
UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


CHAPTER  V 

JEFFERSON'S   DOCTRINES   UNDER 
NEW  TESTS 

In  1904  there  was  held  at  St.  Louis  a  great  Some 

exposition  whose  obiect  it  was  to  exempHfy  the   ^^^^^"^"^ 

anniversa- 

amazing  progress  that  Mr.  Jefferson  foresaw  as  ries 
a  result  of  his  acquisition  of  the  trans-Mississippi 
country.  In  the  following  year  there  was  a 
creditable  exposition  in  Oregon  to  commemorate 
the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  Jefferson's  ex- 
pedition under  command  of  Lewis  and  Clark. 
In  1907  comes  the  celebration  of  the  noteworthy 
completion  of  three  hundred  years  of  English- 
speaking  men  in  the  commonwealth  of  Virginia. 

In    these     commemorations    of    the     opening   Jefferson 

decade   of   our  twentieth  century,  Mr.  Jefferson   "^  ,.^ 

•'  leading 

stands  forth  as  in  many  respects  the   most  con-  figure 
spicuous    figure.       A    multiplicity    of    speeches, 
brochures,  biographical  studies,  and  historical  re- 
views of  the  Jeffersonian  period  has  within  recent 

187 


188 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 


The 

vitality  of 
his  doc- 
trines 


His  long 
career 


Excep- 
tional 
training 
for  Presi- 
dency 


years  attested  the  marked  revival  of  interest  in 
the  career  of  this  eminent  Virginian.  I  could 
not  hope  to  add  anything,  not  indeed  so  much 
as  a  single  suggestion,  concerning  Mr.  Jefferson's 
personality  or  public  career  to  that  which  has 
become  the  common  stock  of  knowledge  in 
Virginia,  where  the  great  sons  of  the  common- 
wealth are  kept  in  memory  by  accomplished 
speakers  and  writers.  All  that  I  shall  venture  to 
do  is  to  attempt  some  reflections  upon  what  I 
may  call  the  carrying  power  and  the  vitality  of 
Mr.  Jefferson's  political  opinions  and  doctrines. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  agree  with  every  opinion 
Mr.  Jefferson  ever  expressed,  or  to  applaud  every 
attitude  or  act  of  his  public  career,  in  order  to 
be  counted  among  those  who  admire  him  sincerely 
and  profoundly,  and  who  find  his  writings  a 
marvelous  repository  of  political  wisdom  and 
knowledge.  His  was  a  very  long  period  of  active 
statesmanship  and  public  influence.  That  period 
reached  its  zenith  in  the  first  term  of  his  incum- 
bency of  the  office  of  President,  about  a  hundred 
years  ago.  He  entered  the  Presidency  with  a 
thoroughness  of  training  and  a  ripeness  of  ex- 
perience beyond  that  of  any  other  man  who  has 
ever  attained   this  high   office.     As   might  have 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  189 

been   expected,   his  first   inaugural   address  was       chap.  v. 

one  of  great  dignity  and  elevation  of  sentiment, 

—  a  stately  utterance,  a  model  and  a  classic  in 

form  and  in  breadth  and  serenity  of  view.     He 

had   been  called  to  guide  the  affairs  of  what  he 

described  as  "  a  rising  nation,  spread  over  a  wide   A  forecast 

and  fruitful  land,  traversing  all  the  seas  with  the  '"^^n- 

^  can  destt- 

rich    productions    of   their    industry,    engaged    in   nies 

commerce  with  nations  who  feel  power  and  forget 

right,  advancing  rapidly  to  destinies  beyond  the 

reach  of  mortal  eye." 

It  was,  indeed,  a  wide  and  fruitful  land.     But   Expansion 

Mr.  Jefferson  himself  was  ordained  by  Providence   ^"  Jeffer- 
son's time 
to  make  it  vastly  wider,  and  in  many  ways  to 

enhance  its  fruitfulness.     Our  population  at  that 

time  was  only  a  little  more  than  five  millions,  and 

our  domain  was  bounded  by  the  Mississippi  River 

on  the  west,  and    by  the  European   colonies  of 

Florida  and  Louisiana  on   the  south.      He  lived   Growth 

to  see  our  population  grow  to  about  twelve  mil-  ^^^^  ^^   , 

'promoted 

lions,  with  the  Florida  Purchase  consummated 
and  with  every  reason  to  believe  that  in  due  time 
the  joint  occupation  of  the  Oregon  country  by 
the  United  States  and  England  would  terminate 
in  our  acknowledged  control  of  the  region  trav- 
ersed   by  Lewis  and    Clark  all   the  way  to  the 


190 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.   V. 

His  views 
and  his 
deeds 


He  looked 
forward 


His  use  of 

political 

history 


Our 

present 
situation 


Pacific  Ocean.  But,  as  I  have  said,  it  is  Mr. 
Jefferson's  views  rather  than  his  achievements 
that  belong  to  my  theme. 

Though  of  a  philosophical  and  reflective  habit, 
and  himself  a  diligent  student  of  the  past  ex- 
perience of  men  grouped  in  political  communities, 
Mr.  Jefferson's  own  eyes  were  usually  turned 
forward  rather  than  backward.  His  was  an 
eminently  practical  mind ;  and  he  used  history 
chiefly  as  the  touchstone  by  which  to  test  current 
opinions  and  tendencies  for  the  sake  of  an  ever- 
better  future.  All  political  principles  and  theories, 
all  the  history  of  the  past,  all  the  implements 
and  methods  of  statecraft,  were  studied  by  Mr. 
Jefferson  with  the  one  concrete  object  of  enabling 
him  and  his  colleagues  (to  quote  from  that  same 
inaugural  address),  "to  steer  with  safety  the  vessel 
in  which  we  are  all  embarked  amidst  the  con- 
flicting elements  of  a  troubled  world." 

Now,  just  as  Mr.  Jefferson  himself  examined 
the  doctrines  of  the  English  and  French  phi- 
losophers, humanitarians,  and  economists,  with 
a  view  to  the  establishment  of  his  own  opinions, 
so  I  find  myself  at  present  disposed  to  consider 
not  so  much  the  problems  that  lay  before  our 
countrymen   a   hundred   years   ago   as   our   own 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  191 

problems  of  to-day,  except  as  those  of  the  former       chap.  v. 

period   may  have  some  bearing  upon  the  issues 

that  confront  us  now  as  we  have  fairly  crossed 

the  threshold  of  a  new  century  and  are  casting 

about  us  for  wise  courses,  still  finding  ourselves   Do  the 

"amidst   the   conflicting  elements   of   a  troubled      ^/J^^^^- 

°  man  prin- 

world."      And  I  have  asked  myself.  What  valid,   ciples  still 
trustworthy,    and    still   enduring   basis   have   the   "^^  ^ 
principles  of  Mr.  Jefferson  as  applied  to  our  own 
present  and  immediate  future  ? 

Have  we  outlived  his  generalizations  ?  Was  The 
he,  to  a  large  extent,  superficial  and  specious?  ^"^^J^"' 
Was  he  a  doctrinaire  in  a  sense  that  should  now 
cause  us  to  distrust  his  practical  conclusions  ? 
Was  he  sentimental  and  visionary.^  Was  he 
hasty  in  pronouncing  radical  and  sweeping  ver- 
dicts ?  Did  he  allow  his  love  of  glittering  ex- 
pressions and  abstract  dicta  to  impair  his  judg- 
ment ?  Did  he  reason  to  permanent  conclusions 
from  isolated  instances  or  merely  transient  phe- 
nomena, and  thus  violate  scientific  methods  ? 

Political     philosophers    come     and     go.     Half    The  pass- 

a  dozen  new  ones,  who  were  the  vogue   ten   or  ]y,  ^•\  ^^"  . 

°  htical   phi- 

twenty,  or  even  five,  years  ago,  are  now  confessedly  losophers 
obsolete.     They  do   not   stand   the  test  of  time. 
Yet  there   must  be   some   principles    of   govern- 


192 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 


Outward 
changes 
since 
Jefferson 


What 
landmarks 
can  we 
keep? 


ment,  of  national  policy,  of  social  and  political 
ethics,  approaching  nearly  enough  to  essential 
truth  and  justice  to  meet  the  fluctuations  of  at 
least  one  century,  and  to  hold  some  rightful  claim 
to  popular  confidence  and  allegiance.  Men  must 
hold  by  some  opinions;  what,  then,  shall  they 
be? 

Many   things   in   outward   circumstances  have 
changed  more  profoundly  in  the  past  one  hundred 
years  than  in  a  thousand  years  preceding.     The 
production  of  wealth,  for  example,  has  been  greater 
by  far  since  the  death  of  Mr.  Jefferson  than  were 
the  total  accumulations  of  the  world  through  all 
the  ages  down  to  that  date.     Moreover,  there  has 
been  most  marvelous  developmen    of  population; 
and  every  one  feels  that  we  are  entering  upon  new 
and  unknown   periods  of  transition   at  an  ever- 
accelerating     pace.     What     landmarks     can     we 
keep  in  view,  or  by  what  charts  and  compasses 
shall  we  be  guided  as  we  embark  on  momentous 
new    voyages  ?     In    these    inquiries,    I    have    in 
mind,  not  so  much  the  world  at  large  as  the  people 
of  the   United   States;    and   I  have  particularly 
in  mind  two  or  three  lines  of  questioning.     One 
of  these  has  to  do  with  our  national  position  and 
policy,  as  respects  other  nations  and  the  world 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  193 

at    large.     Another,    with    some    of   our    internal       chap.  v. 
problems  of  government  and  poHtics,  and  per- 
haps a  third,  with  the  economic  and  social  status  Public  and 

of   the    individual    citizen  —  the    outlook,    so   to   P'"^y°  ^ 

outlooks 

speak,  for  the  average  man  under  fast-changing 
methods  of  production  and  distribution.  And 
a  fourth  might  have  to  do  with  the  relation  of  the 
State  itself  to  industry  and  economic  society. 

Further,  in  alluding  to  some  of  these  present-   Jefferson 

day  problems,   I  would   like  to  make  test,   inci-   °*  f" . 

■^     '  enduring 

dentally,  at  least,  of  the  doctrines  and  opinions  prophet 
of  Thomas  Jefferson,  to  see  if  they  hold  good,  and 
if  Jefferson  is  still  entitled  to  be  looked  upon  as  a 
prophet  and  a  guide.  I  shall  not  try  to  use  any 
rhetorical  art  whatsoever  to  heighten  the  effect 
of  my  own  conclusions  as  respects  the  essential 
qualities  of  the  body  of  political  doctrine  taught 
by  Mr.  Jefferson;  and  I  shall  make  haste,  there- 
fore, to  anticipate  some  more  detailed  avowals 
by  declaring  in  advance,  and  in  general  terms, 
my  strong  belief  in  Mr.  Jefferson  as  an  enduring 
prophet. 

I  find  myself  wondering  again  and  again  how   An  eman- 

that  fine  and  lucid  intelligence  of  his  could,  by  the  "^'^  5 

^  -'  mind 

time  he  was  thirty  years  old,  in  provincial  Virginia, 
a  hundred   and  thirty  years  ago,   have  become 


194 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 

Freshness 

and 

modernity 


Across  the 

middle 

period 


Some 
compari- 
sons 


More 

recent  than 
Webster  or 
Calhoun 


SO  perfectly  emancipated.  When  to-day  I  re- 
read his  utterances,  the  one  thing  that  impresses 
me  above  all  else  is  the  freshness,  the  modernity, 
of  his  way  of  looking  at  everything.  The  open- 
ness and  the  freedom  of  his  mental  processes  seem 
to  bring  him  across  the  chasm  of  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century  to  a  place  with  thinkers 
like  John  Stuart  Mill  and  Huxley  at  their  best 
period.  Since  Jefferson's  time,  we  have  had  few 
public  men  of  large  vision.  At  least  these  later 
statesmen,  if  endowed  by  nature  with  capacity 
to  formulate  principles,  have  not  enjoyed  as 
favorable  opportunities.  They  have  been  in- 
volved in  controversies  over  immediate  issues,  and 
have  been  in  the  position  of  men  in  the  thick 
of  the  woods,  hindered  by  the  trees  from  seeing 
the  forest.  Compared  with  Jefferson,  in  practical 
statesmanship,  John  Bright  seems  a  limited 
though  a  congenial  spirit;  and  Mr.  Gladstone, 
a  similarly  versatile  and  capacious  mind  but 
with  prejudices  of  class  and  creed  that  yielded 
only  painfully  and  slowly  through  a  half  century 
of  experience.  Our  own  Websters  and  Calhouns 
and  Clays  seem  merely  a  part  of  a  past  epoch. 
Jefferson's  thinking  seems  to  reach  to  the  things 
of  to-day,  while  those  men  of  the  forties  and  fifties 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  195 

appear  almost  as  remote  as  the  figures  of  Plutarch's       chap.  v. 
time.     Lincoln's   thought   had,    doubtless,    much   Lincoln 

of  the  quality  that  survives,  and,  among  our  later   °"^ 

Seward 
men,  I  think  you  will  some  day  give  a  larger  place 

to  Seward  than  either  North  or  South  has  yet 
accorded  him.  But  for  flexibility  of  mind,  and 
for  perennial  freshness  of  doctrine  and  statement, 
it  seems  to  me  JeflFerson  must  still  bear  the  palm. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  the  launching 
of  a  new  and  powerful  nation  has  not  been  a  fre- 
quent occurrence  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
The  erection  of  a  sovereign  State  to  take  its  place    The  mak- 

as  a  member  of  the  family  of  nations  has  almost   ^"'9  of  a 

nation 
mvanably  been  a  matter  of  sheer  force,  of  bloody 

violence,  of  titanic  struggle,  rather  than  one  of  a 
calm  and  philosophic  shaping  of  political  in- 
stitutions. Thus,  never  elsewhere  has  either 
the  forming  of  a  new  State  or  the  political  re- 
making of  an  old  one  been  accompanied  by  any 
such    magnificent   setting   forth    of   the   practical   Doctrine 

and    theoretical     principles    of    government,     of   '"''"'■ 

formative 
politics,    of   jurisprudence,    of    international   law,   ■period 

and   of  foreign   and  domestic  statesmanship,   as 

that  which  attended  the  formative  period  in  the 

United  States. 

During  this  memorable  period,  George  Wash- 


196 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 

Washing- 
ton and 

Jefferson 


Hamilton 
and  others 


Conditions 
that  pro- 
duced great 
men 


ington  held  the  first  place  as  a  man  of  action  and 
of  noble  and  sagacious  leadership,  while  in  all 
deference  it  may  be  said  that  he  held  second  place 
as  a  man  of  reflection  and  as  the  exponent  of 
distinctively  American  opinion.  His  colleague 
and  friend,  Thomas  Jefferson,  held  a  place  second 
to  Washington  only  as  a  leader  in  actual  affairs, 
and  a  place  unquestionably  the  very  first  as  a 
formulator  of  opinion  and  an  exponent  of  our 
American  system  of  popular  democratic  govern- 
ment. And  all  this  I  say,  without  abatement  of 
one  particle  of  the  admiration  I  entertain  for  the 
powerful  statesmanship  of  Alexander  Hamilton, 
for  the  learning  and  persuasive  logic  of  James 
Madison,  for  the  wisdom  and  greatness  of  John 
Jay,  and  for  the  constructive  intellect  and  price- 
less services  of  John  Marshall.  How  many 
others  there  were  in  that  noble  company  of  Ameri- 
cans, many  of  them  young  men,  who  were  brought 
to  great  elevation  of  view,  as  evinced  in  their 
work  in  the  Continental  Congress,  then  later  in 
the  discussions  that  controlled  the  framing  and 
adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and  in  the  executive, 
legislative,  and  judicial  acts  and  decisions,  and 
the  diplomacy,  of  the  period  that  ended,  let  us 
say,  with  the  death  of  Thomas  Jefferson  and  John 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  197 

Adams,  who  passed  away  on  the  same  Fourth  of       chap.  v. 

July,  in  the  year  1826. 

Of  some  of  these   men  —  as   of  Washington,    The  force 

and    perhaps    Hamilton  —  it    must   be   said   that   ^•'  ^'^^^"^"' 
*  ^  stances 

they  were  "born  great."  Most  of  them  had 
"greatness  thrust  upon  them"  by  the  sheer  force 
of  circumstances  that  developed  their  best  capaci- 
ties. These  men  were  compelled  to  study  the 
position  of  their  young  republic,  both  as  regards 
its  domestic  structure,  and  also  as  related  to  the 
world  at  large,  in  a  period  when  the  struggles 
and  convulsions  of  Europe  were  stirring  men's 
minds  and  causing  them  to  see  things  in  new  lights, 
with  renunciation  of  old  prejudices.  Thus  they 
were  lifted  above  the  commonplace.  It  was  im- 
possible to  go  on  in  ruts.     JeflFerson  and  Benja-  Jefferson 

min  Franklin  must,  I    think,  in    any  case,  have   ^ 

Franklin 

achieved  greatness  without  the  stimulus  of  ex- 
ceptional circumstances,  through  the  inherent 
power  of  minds  of  rare  energy  and  of  still  more 
rare  versatility  —  to  which,  in  both  cases,  was 
added  the  gift  of  abstract  and  philosophical  rea- 
soning, and,  finally,  a  touch  of  that  something 
we  call  genius  and  do  not  try  to  explain. 

In  the  very  nature  of  things  a  new  English- 
speaking  commonwealth,  emerging  in  that  par- 


198 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 

The  earlier 
time  and 
its  doc- 
trines 


This  later 
time  in 
compari- 
son 


Need  of 
some  guid- 
ing prin- 
ciples 


ticular  period,  must  have  formulated  for  itself 
some  doctrines  and  general  opinions.  The  cir- 
cumstances were  of  a  well-balanced  sort  as  re- 
spects what  one  may  call  the  relative  exigencies 
of  domestic  and  foreign  problems.  Thus  our 
statesmen  were  able  to  work  out  schemes,  both 
of  doctrine  and  of  practical  policy,  that  in  spite 
of  vicissitudes  and  profound  changes  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  have  had  momentum  enough  to 
project  themselves,  without  much  serious  deflec- 
tion, across  the  line  of  a  new  century.  And  now, 
if  I  mistake  not,  the  country  has  reached  a  junc- 
ture where  once  more  the  relative  exigencies  of 
domestic  and  external  problems  not  only  permit 
us  but  also  compel  us  to  try  again  to  take  our 
bearings  as  respects  underlying  principles  and 
national  attitudes  and  policies. 

To  the  wholesome  and  normal  mind  some 
principles  and  creeds  are  necessary  —  if  for  no 
other  reason  than  to  serve  as  a  working  hypothesis. 
And  it  is  eminently  true  in  the  conduct  of  public 
affairs,  that  for  wise  results  there  must  be  some 
admitted  principles  of  government  and  some 
fixed  landmarks  of  policy.  Otherwise,  disastrous 
mistakes  will  be  made  and  recognized  only  too 
late.     The  word  policy,  as  applied  to  a  nation's 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  199 

affairs,  though  broad  enough  to  include  all  gen-       chap.  v. 

eral  and  fixed  trends  of  action,  may  well  be  re-  PoUcy  and 

stricted  to  external  relationships.     In  my  use  of  its  mean- 

it  I  have  in  mind  more  particularly  the  intentions 

and  aspirations,  as  well  as  the  actual  conduct, 

of  a  nation,  in  its  dealings  with  other  countries 

and  its  plans  as  to  the  world  at  large. 

For   some    countries   the    problems   of   foreign   Foreign 

policy  are  so  delicate  and  difficult  that  they  can-     .  . 
^      ->  ''  ships 

not  very  well  be  discussed  openly.  Thus  at 
times  British,  German,  and  Russian  policy  must 
be  learned  by  inference  rather  than  by  any  frank 
or  responsible  avowal.  The  United  States  in 
this  respect  has  occupied  a  favorable  and  fortu- 
nate position,  and  we  have  usually  found  it  to 
be  both  safe  and  wise  to  discuss  freely  and  openly 
the  principles  having  to  do  with  our  relations 
toward  other  countries.  During  the  past  century  The  Mon- 
American  policy  has  had  its  pivot  in  what  we  com-  ,  . 
monly  call  the  "  Monroe  Doctrine,"  and  what  the 
European  nations  refer  to  as  "Monroeism." 
Those  who  find  it  sufficient,  in  discussing  the 
Monroe  Doctrine,  to  recall  the  exact  wording  of  a 
particular  utterance  formulated  by  John  Quincy 
Adams,  as  Secretary  of  State  in  President  Monroe's 
second  administration,  fail  to  appreciate  the  under- 


200  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  V.       lying  fact.     This  precise  utterance  did  not  make 
The  under-  ^"^  American   policy,   but   was   simply  a  timely 
lying  fact      and  valuable  expression  of  a  policy  that  had  been 
shaping   itself  for  a  quarter  of   a  century  previ- 
ous, that  had  found  a   partial  —  and,  in  so  far, 
authoritative — expression  in   Washington's   fare- 
well address. 
The  real  If  I  have  studied  aright  the  history  of  American 

^1^    °^  0/       policy,  it  was  Thomas  Jefferson,  as  Washington's 
trine  first  Secretary  of  State,  and  as  our  foremost  ex- 

ponent of  national  doctrine  and  principle,  who 
—  incomparably  more  than  any  one  else  — 
thought  out,  developed,  and  expressed  the  ideas 
that  we  have  in  mind  when  we  mention  the  Monroe 
Doctrine.  It  was  he  whose  teachings  made  this 
doctrine  the  one  great  fixed  landmark  to  guide 
us  in  our  relations  with  the  world  at  large. 
A  masterly       As  the  Louisiana  Purchase  was  the  foremost 

achieve-        single    act    of    domestic    statesmanship    in    our 
ment 

national    history  during  the  last  century,  so  the 

evolution  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  was  the  one 
great  feature  of  our  statesmanship  as  it  dealt 
with  external  affairs.  It  was  an  achievement 
of  such  overshadowing  greatness  that  in  com- 
parison with  it  everything  else  falls  into  the 
background. 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  201 

What,  in  its  fundamental  aspect,  is  the  Monroe       chap.  v. 
Doctrine  ?     Jefferson  saw  the  group  of  European   oid-world 
nations    engaged    in    almost    incessant    warfare   conditions 
with   one   another,  changing  boundaries  through 
conquest,  making  and  breaking  alliances,  strug- 
gling painfully  for  release  from  the  shackles  of 
mediaeval   systems,  in   response  to   new  ideas   of 
popular  progress;    and  through  it  all  he  foresaw 
with   wonderful   clearness   the   gradual  evolution 
of  a  better  order  of  things  and  the  ultimate  es- 
tablishment of    a  peaceable,   modern    concert  of 
European  nations,  working  its  way  by  hard  ex- 
perience out  of  the  old  military  balance  of  power. 
He  anticipated  the  breaking  up  of  the  Turkish    What 
Empire  and  the  extension  of  the  European  system   •'^i'^'"^^^ 
across  the  Mediterranean  into  Africa  and  beyond 
the  Bosphorus  and   the  Caucasus  into  Western 
Asia.     He  had   no   misgivings   at   all   about  the 
future  outworking  of  the  spirit  of  human  liberty 
and    of    democratic    and    industrial    progress    in 
those    blood-stained    regions  of    the    Old  World. 

But,  meanwhile,  he  conceived  of  a  new  Amer-  ^  „gy, 

ican  world   based   on  principles  of  equality  and   American 

world 
freedom,    and    beginning    its    political    career    at 

a  point  of  human  emancipation  which  it  might 

well  take  Europe  two  centuries  to  attain.     And 


202 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 


A  states- 
man's con- 
ception 


Ultimate 
dominance 
of  the 
United 
States 


he  believed  that  this  new  and  beneficent  system 
in  the  Western  Hemisphere  should  be  allowed 
to  work  out  its  destiny  without  alliances  or  en- 
tanglements with  the  European  nations,  both  for 
the  happiness  of  our  own  people  and  also  for  the 
subsequent  benefit  of  the  rest  of  mankind.  I  do 
not  say  that  Jefl^erson  was  alone  in  entertaining 
this  great  conception,  yet  I  have  not  the  slightest 
doubt  that  he  held  it,  in  all  its  wide  and  varied 
aspects,  with  far  more  clearness  of  vision  than 
any  other  man  —  just  as  I  know  that  he  ex- 
pressed it  better  than  anybody  else  either  before 
his  day  or  since,  down  to  our  own  time. 

While  we  were  still  bounded  by  the  Mississippi 
River  on  the  west,  and  inclosed  on  three  sides  by 
the  territorial  possessions  of  European  powers, — 
with  all  of  Central  and  South  America,  and  every 
dot  of  the  West  Indies  held  as  crown  colonies 
by  European  sovereigns,  —  JeflFerson  saw  more 
vividly,  and  announced  with  more  boldness  and 
definiteness  than  any  public  man  at  Washington 
has  ventured  to  assert  down  to  our  own  day,  the 
necessary  ultimate  dominance  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  high  policy  that  must  be  followed  in 
pursuance  of  a  faith  in  our  manifest  destiny.  He 
believed  that  the  whole  Western  Hemisphere  must 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  203 

be   brought   out    from    under   European    control,        chap.  v. 
and   that   the  American   RepubHc  must   assume 
the  leadership  in  the  development  of  democratic 
institutions  throughout  the  New  World. 

In    1805  he  declared :    "  I  know  that  the   ac-    The 

quisition  of  Louisiana  has  been  disapproved  by   ^oxnsiana 

Purchase 
some,  from  a  candid  apprehension  that  the  en- 
largement   of    our   territory    would    endanger   its 
Union.     But  who  can  limit  the  extent  to  which 
the  federative  principle  may  operate  effectively? 
The  larger  our  association,  the  less  will  it  be  shaken 
by  local  passions ;  and,  in  any  view,  is  it  not  better 
that  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Mississippi  should   "Settled 
be  settled  by  our  own  brethren  and  children  than   ^y  <'"'"  ^^^ 
by    strangers    of    another    family?     With    which 
shall  we  be  most  likely  to  live  in  harmony  and 
friendly  intercourse  ?  " 

So  strongly  did  he  feel  the  necessity  of  a  period   Growth  of 

of  isolation  in  the  working  out  of  our  own  experi-   ""^^"*^''*- 

'■can  nation- 

ment,  that  he  went  so  far  at  times  as  to  say  frankly  ality 
that  he  would  like  to  see  us  as  wholly  cut  off  from 
European  influence  as  China  itself  then  was. 
This,  of  course,  was  for  the  sake  of  that  distinc- 
tive growth  of  an  American  nationality,  and  an 
American  system,  for  which  he  believed  a  period 
of  seclusion  and  of  obscurity  might  be  valuable. 


204 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 


The  conti- 
nental 
view 


As  to 

Spanish 

America 


Expansion 
foreseen 


He  never,  of  course,  forgot  the  ultimate  reaction 
of  our  example  upon  the  character  of  the  European 
countries.  Thus,  a  little  more  than  a  hundred 
years  ago,  he  wrote  to  an  American  statesman : 
"A  just  and  solid  republican  government  main- 
tained here  will  be  a  standing  monument  and  ex- 
ample for  the  aim  and  imitation  of  the  people  of 
other  countries."  In  another  letter,  fifteen  years 
earlier,  a  year  before  the  framing  of  the  Consti- 
tution, Mr.  Jefferson  had  shown  the  breadth  of 
his  view  by  writing:  "Our  confederacy  must  be 
viewed  as  the  nest  from  which  all  America,  North 
and  South,  is  to  be  peopled." 

He  was  fearful  at  that  time  lest  the  Spaniards 
should  be  too  weak  to  hold  South  America.  His 
view  on  that  subject  is  too  interesting  to  be  al- 
lowed to  be  forgotten.  He  did  not  believe  that 
the  Spanish  colonies  were  capable  of  republican 
self-government,  and  he  thought  it  best  that  they 
should  remain  quietly  under  the  domination  of 
Spain  until  our  own  population  should  have  been 
sufficiently  advanced  to  gain  the  territory  from 
the  Spaniards  "  piece  by  piece,"  to  quote  his  own 
phrase.  Thus,  even  as  early  as  1786,  Jefferson 
foresaw  the  inevitability  of  our  expansion,  until 
we    had    acquired    the    Floridas,    the    Louisiana 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  205 

country,   Texas,   and   the  great   Spanish  domain       chap.  v. 

of  California  and  Northern  Mexico. 

With    some   prescience,    seemingly,   of   the    in-    The  ex- 

felicitv  of  our  having  to  wrest  such  territory  away   ^^^^ 

•'  °  ./  ./     process 

from  a  Spanish-speaking  American  republic,  such 
as  Mexico  became,  he  had  hoped  that  Spain 
would  hold  on  until  we  could  emancipate  the 
territory  piece  by  piece  and  develop  it  into  happy, 
self-governing  states  in  our  own  confederation. 
In  these  days  of  the  railroad,  the  telegraph,  the 
fast  steamship,  and  the  daily  newspaper,  large  con- 
federacies seem  easily  enough  possible.  But  we 
must  not  underestimate  the  boldness  of  Thomas 
Jefferson  in  declaring,  a  hundred  and  twenty 
years  ago,  that  it  would  be  feasible  not  only  to 
bring  the  whole  of  North  America  under  our  one 
federal  government,  but  even  possible  to  bring 
in  South  America  also.  In  later  years,  when  fj^g  i^i^j. 
problems  of  practical  statesmanship,  rather  than  demands 
the  bold  survey  of  future  destiny  more  habitually 
occupied  his  mind,  he  contented  himself  with 
strong  declarations  in  favor  of  the  acquisition  of 
Cuba  by  the  United  States,  and  of  the  annexation 
of  Canada  at  the  first  convenient  opportunity. 

Undoubtedly  it  was  his  opinion  —  indeed,  he 
expressed    it   often   in   private   letters  —  that   the 


206 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 

Future  of 
Canada 


America 
for  peace, 
not  war 


War  of  1812  would  result  in  our  taking  and  keep- 
ing Canada  as  compensation  for  our  many  and 
substantial  grievances  against  England.  This 
was  not  due  to  any  unfriendliness  toward  Great 
Britain,  but  to  the  belief  that  it  would  make  for 
stable  equilibrium  all  around,  and  be  better  for 
everybody  concerned.  He  looked  forward  to  a 
confederated  North  America,  and  to  a  South 
America  at  least  wholly  independent  of  Europe 
and  developing  under  our  friendly  auspices. 
He  wrote  to  Baron  von  Humboldt  in  1813  as 
follows :  — 

"The  European  nations  constitute  a  separate 
division  of  the  globe,  their  treaties  make  them 
part  of  a  distinct  system;  they  have  a  set  of  in- 
terests of  their  own  in  which  it  is  our  business 
never  to  engage  ourselves.  America  has  a  hemi- 
sphere to  itself.  It  must  have  its  separate  system 
of  interests,  which  must  not  be  subordinated  to 
those  of  Europe.  The  insulated  state  in  which 
nature  has  placed  the  American  continent  should 
so  far  avail  it  that  no  spark  of  war  kindled  in  the 
other  quarters  of  the  globe  should  be  wafted  across 
the  wide  oceans  which  separate  us  from  them." 

To  another  foreign  correspondent  he  wrote 
several  years  later :  — 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  207 

"Nothing  is  so  important  as  that  America 
shall  separate  herself  from  the  systems  of  Europe    t^.  ,. 

and    establish    one    of    her    own.     Our    circum-  from 

.  '.  •    ,         ,  ^•  ,'      ,      European 

stances,   our  pursuits,  our  mterests  are  distmct; 

^  system 

the  principles  of  our  policy  should  be  so  also. 
All  entanglements  with  that  quarter  of  the  globe 
should  be  avoided  if  we  mean  that  peace  and 
justice  shall  be  the  polar  stars  of  American  so- 
cieties." 

Finally,  before  the  great  enunciation  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  in  1823,  President  Monroe 
wisely  consulted  the  venerable  statesman  then 
in  retirement  at  Monticello,  and  he  received  from 
Mr.  Jefferson  an  ever-memorable  letter,  from 
which  I  may  quote  the  following  sentences:  — 

"Our  first  and  fundamental  maxim  should  be   Statement 

never  to  entangle  ourselves  in  the  broils  of  Europe.   ^-^  P^hct/ 
^  ^  ^       in  1823 

Our  second,  never  to  suffer  Europe  to  intermeddle 
with  cis-Atlantic  affairs.  America,  North  and 
South,  has  a  set  of  interests  distinct  from  those 
of  Europe  and  peculiarly  her  own.  She  should, 
therefore,  have  a  system  of  her  own,  separate  and 
apart  from  that  of  Europe." 

This,  all  things  considered,  is  perhaps  the  best 
and  clearest  statement,  as  it  is  the  boldest,  that 
has  ever  been  made  of  the  doctrine  so  repeatedly 


208 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.   V. 


An  earlier 
utterance 


Cuba  and 
Mexico 


Mr.  Sew- 
ard's 
policy  in 
Mexico 


set  forth  by  Jefferson,  though  nominally  attrib- 
uted, on  account  of  one  official  utterance,  to  one 
of  Jefferson's  most  steadfast  disciples.  Fifteen 
years  earlier  than  this,  in  writing  to  Governor 
Claiborne,  who  was  then  administering  the 
Louisiana  Territory  at  New  Orleans,  —  as  if  in 
prophetic  forecast  of  actual  applications  of  his 
principles  of  policy,  —  Jefferson  had  said,  re- 
specting Cuba  and  Mexico:  "We  consider  their 
interests  and  ours  as  the  same,  and  that  the  object 
of  both  must  be  to  exclude  all  European  influence 
from  this  hemisphere."  Nearly  sixty  years  later 
we  applied  this  specific  principle  to  the  case  of 
Mexico,  and  expelled  a  French  army  and  an 
Austrian  dynasty. 

Mr.  Seward,  one  of  the  greatest  successors  of 
Jefferson,  and  one  of  the  few  of  our  more  recent 
statesmen  who  have  seemed  to  comprehend  the 
principles  of  American  policy,  had  the  honor 
to  enforce  our  views  in  the  case  of  Mexico.  The 
reasons  would  have  seemed  ample,  a  very  few 
years  later,  either  before  or  after  the  Virginius 
incident,  for  the  enforcement  of  that  principle 
in  the  case  of  Cuba.  But  the  views  that  then 
prevailed  were  rather  those  of  legalists  and  diplo- 
matists than  those  of  masters  of  American  policy 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  209 

in  the  large  sense.     And  so  it  remained  for  our       chap.  v. 

country,   in  a  better  period,  and  in  the  fullness   Our  later 

of  time,  to  enforce  the   Jeffersonian  principles  of   policy  in 

policy  in  the  case  of  an  island  concerning  which 

Jefferson    in    1823    had    written:     "I    candidly 

confess  that  I  have  ever  looked  on  Cuba  as  the 

most    interesting   addition   which   could   ever   be 

made  to  our  system  of  states." 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  Mr.  Jefferson   Predictions 

was  always  consciously  working  out  a  permanent   f^  .^  popu- 
•^  J  &  r  lation 

rather  than  a  temporary  line  of  policy,  and  that 
he  always  had  in  mind  the  rapid  extension  and 
great  growth  of  the  nation.  Thus,  writing  to 
Baron  von  Humboldt  not  long  after  the  census 
of  1810,  which  had  shown  our  population  to  be 
a  little  more  than  seven  millions,  he  declared :  — 

"  In  fifty  years  more  the  United  States  alone  To  Hum- 
will  contain  fifty  millions  of  inhabitants,  and 
fifty  years  are  soon  gone  over.  The  peace  of 
1763  is  within  that  period.  I  was  then  twenty 
years  old,  and  of  course  remember  well  all  the 
transactions  of  the  war  preceding  it,  and  you 
will  live  to  see  the  period  equally  ahead  of  us; 
and  the  numbers  which  will  then  be  spread  over 
the  other  parts  of  the  American  hemisphere 
catching  long  before  that  the   principles   of  our 


Humboldt 
lived  to  see 


210  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  V.  portion  of  it,  and  concurring  with  us  in  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  same  system." 

What  Humboldt  actually  lived  to  see  the  population 

of  the  United  States  alone  more  than  thirty 
millions,  and  to  see  the  independent  South 
American  states  living  under  constitutions  mod- 
eled after  ours,  and  concurring  in  the  main  in 
our  views  of  a  distinctive  American  international 
policy. 

To  Monroe       In  his  population  estimates,  Mr.  Jefferson  had 

on  Canada  pp^ijably  calculated  upon  our  union  with  Canada, 
which  would  have  resulted  in  the  much  more 
rapid  development  of  that  region.  Writing  to 
James  Monroe,  in  1801,  he  declared:  — 

"However  our  present  interests  may  restrain 
us  within  our  own  limits,  it  is  impossible  not  to 
look  forward  to  distant  times  when  our  rapid 
multiplication  will  expand  itself  beyond  those 
limits  and  cover  the  whole  northern,  if  not  the 
southern,  continent,  with  a  people  speaking  the 
same  language,  governed  in  similar  forms,  and 
by  similar  laws." 

Race  and  What  other  man,  in  1801,  foresaw  so  clearly 

language^      the  great  growth  of  the  English-speaking  races 
in  America 

and  the  widespread  establishment  of  their  social 

and  political  institutions .?     Writing  to  Mr.  Madi- 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  211 

son  on  the  Florida  question  in   1809,   Jefferson       chap.  v. 
declared :  — 

"We  should  then  have  only  to  include  the 
North  [meaning  Canada],  in  our  confederacy, 
and  we  should  have  such  an  empire  for  liberty 
as  she  has  never  surveyed  since  the  creation ;  and 
I  am  persuaded  no  constitution  was  ever  before 
so  well  calculated  as  ours  for  extensive  empire 
and  self-government." 

It  is  not  necessary  to  pause  to  inquire  how  far   The  still 

Jefferson's   specific  forecasts  have  been  verified  •{     .  ^ 

^  horizon 

in  the  course  of  a  hundred  years;  but  it  is  to  be 
remarked  that  he  was  dealing  consciously  with  a 
larger  future  than  a  single  century.  In  short, 
the  statesmen  of  to-day,  for  large,  fresh,  and 
sweeping  views  toward  the  still  future  horizon, 
should  look  through  the  lenses  provided  by 
Thomas  Jefferson.  It  remains  true,  as  he  pointed 
out,  that  the  policy  of  Europe  is  essentially 
belligerent  and  aggressive,  while  the  policy  of 
America  is  essentially  pacific. 

It  remains  true,  moreover,  that  it  must  be  a    The  largest 

,     •        J.  !•       .  .     J.1      J        1  remaining 

prmcipal  aim  ot  our  policy  to  promote  the  develop- 

ment  of  the  Canadian  half  of  North  America  in 

harmony  with  that  of  our  own  half,  with  a  view 

to  ultimate  voluntary  political  union.     If  Jefferson 


212 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 


The 

Isthmian 

canal 


The  Gulf 
(md  the 
Caribbean 
Sea  are 
American 


were  alive,  he  would  still  hold  this  to  be  the 
largest  unfulfilled  aspiration  to  be  noted  in  the 
items  of  a  future  public  policy. 

In  view  of  the  great  development  of  our  Pacific 
seaboard,   it  would  have  been  in  strict  keeping 
with  all  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  views  to  advocate  the 
territorial  acquisition  of  the  Isthmian  strip  that 
connects  North  and  South  America  with  a  view 
to  cutting  a  ship  canal  on  our  own  soil.     Although 
such  a  costly  project  was  by  no  means  ripe  for 
action  in  his  day,  Mr.  Jefferson  more  than  once 
expressed  lively  interest  in  the  possibility  of  an 
interoceanic  canal.      And  let  it  be  said  with  the 
utmost    emphasis,     nothing    would    have    been 
further    from    Mr.    Jefferson's    views    than    the 
placing  of  this  strictly  American  enterprise  under 
the    political    auspices    of   the    great    powers    of 
Europe,  although  such  a  plan  was  proposed  in 
the     Bulwer-Clayton     treaty    by    an     American 
Secretary  of  State  in   1850,  and  again  proposed 
in    1900.     Fortunately,    the    preponderant    senti- 
ment of  the  country  was  aroused  to  a  perception 
of  the  vital  bearings  of  the  question;    and  we 
may  rest  assured  that  Americans  will  henceforth 
remember    Jefferson's    idea    that    the    Gulf    of 
Mexico   and   the   Caribbean   Sea  are   essentially 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  213 

American   waters,   and   that   an   American   inter-       chap.  v. 

oceanic  canal  must  come  under  the  full  control  of 

the  American  political  system. 

Jefferson  advocated  ample  coast  defenses,  and    Coast  de- 

a  navy  adequate  to  our  purposes  of  protection.  J^^^^  '^^^ 

If  at  one  time  he  seemed  not  to  favor  an  ambitious 

naval  policy,  it  was  for  immediate  reasons  which 

he  ably  explained.     The  naval  predominance  of 

England  was  so  great  that  we  could  not  then  hope 

to  rival  England  on  the  sea,  and  an  inferior  navy 

would  be  likely  to  be  sacrificed  in  a  British  war. 

John  Adams,  himself  the  staunch  advocate  of  a 

vigorous  naval  policy,  declared  in  his  old  age  that  Father 

he   had   always   regarded   Mr.    Jefferson   as  the  ^f  ^"-^ 

navy 

Father  of  the  American  Navy. 

A  study  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  views,  with  reference 
to  their  application  to  our  existing  conditions, 
would  probably  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  he 
would  now  favor  the  steady  development  of  our  q^  ^^^ 
new  navy,  but  would  limit  the  standing  army  as  army 
closely  as  possible.  As  early  as  1799  he  wrote  to 
Elbridge  Gerry :  — 

"I  am  for  relying  for  internal  defense  on  our 
militia  solely,  till  actual  invasion." 

But  several  years  later,  in  correspondence  with 
some  one  else,  he  made  this  very  notable  utter- 


214 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 

Universal 
militia 


Military 
instruction 
in  schools 


A  citizen 
soldiery 


ance:  "None  but  an  armed  nation  can  dispense 
with  a  standing  army.  To  keep  ours  armed  and 
disciplined  is  therefore  at  all  times  important." 

And  in  his  last  annual  message,  in  1808,  as  his 
second  Presidential  term  was  ending,  he  declared 
to  Congress :  — 

"For  a  people  who  are  free,  and  who  mean  to 
remain  so,  a  well-organized  and  armed  militia 
is  their  best  security." 

You  will  remember  that  in  1813,  several  years 
after  his  retirement,  in  the  light  of  our  current 
experiences  in  the  pending  war  with  Great  Britain, 
he  wrote  to  James  Monroe  that  "We  must  make 
military  instruction  a  regular  part  of  collegiate 
education;  we  can  never  be  safe  until  this  is 
done."  In  short,  Jefferson  believed  in  a  citizen 
soldiery,  to  be  composed,  if  necessary,  of  prac- 
tically all  the  young  men  in  the  country,  none  of 
whom  should  have  grown  up  without  becoming 
familiar  with  the  use  of  weapons  or  without  being 
sufficiently  drilled  and  trained  to  admit  of  ready 
organization.  For  the  supply  of  officers  he  would 
make  sure  that  young  men  in  academies  and 
collegiate  institutions  should  have  some  especial 
training  in  military  tactics  and  the  art  of  war. 

After  the  experience  of  a  hundred  years,  we 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  215 

have  arrived  at  no  wiser  view  than  this.     While       chap.  v. 
England  has  begun  to  talk  of  conscription  and   ^  ^j    •_ 

great     standing    armies,     after    the     continental   pUned 

«     ,  .  •.    I    1  ,  11  nation 

tasnion,   it   behooves  us  to  see   clearly  our  own 

path  and  hold  fast  to  the  principle  that  ours  must 
be  an  armed  and  disciplined  nation,  which  for 
that  very  reason  can  dispense  with  a  large  stand- 
ing army. 

The  question  must  naturally  arise,  what  rela-  Our 
tion  our  position  and   policy   in  the  Philippines   P^'^^'^VV^^^ 
bears  to  the  American  policy  of  isolation  as  set 
forth  by  Mr.  Jefferson.     I  shall  make  no  ingenious 
attempt  to  reconcile  one  thing  with  another.     It 
is  not   necessary  to  prize   consistency  above  all 
else.     But  in  this  particular  instance,  I  am  unable 
to  find  any  denial,  or  even  any  weakening,  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  principle.     Mr.   Jefferson  and 
his  colleagues  were  dealing  with  two  opposing 
systems,  one  the  European,  the  other  the  Ameri- 
can.    These  systems  had  relation  to  such  parts  of 
the  world  as  were  at  that  time  within  the  sphere 
of    ordinary    commercial    intercourse,    or    were 
related  under  the  principles  of  international  law,    y^^ 
recognizing    one    another    by    the    exchange    of  Pacific  in 
ambassadors  or  other  agents.     At  that  time  there   ,. 
was  little  trading  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  the  most 


216 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 


Our  new 
interests 


European 
system 


A  merican 
system 


Pacific 
system 


important  perhaps  being  the  regular  moving  of 
the  Spanish  galleons  from  Mexico  to  the  Philip- 
pines, and  vice  versa.  China  and  Japan,  Korea 
and  Siam,  had  no  connection  or  intercourse  with 
Europe  and  America.  Australia  had  not  been 
colonized. 

A  wholly  new  situation  has  arisen  since  then. 
A  new  commerce  has  come  into  existence,  and  the 
far  East  has  been  aroused  from  the  slumber  of 
centuries.  With  our  great  Pacific  seaboard,  we 
must  needs  be  vitally  interested  in  the  new  com- 
merce and  the  new  affairs  of  the  Pacific  Ocean 
and  its  bordering  countries.  The  European  sys- 
tem remains,  and  it  must  continue  to  dominate 
Europe,  Africa,  and  the  western  part  of  Asia. 
The  American  system  also  remains,  and  so  long 
as  we  are  true  to  the  policy  laid  down  by  our 
forefathers  it  will  continue  to  dominate  the 
Western  Hemisphere  of  North  and  South  America. 
But  there  has  been  rapidly  evolving  a  third  sys- 
tem —  that  of  the  far  East,  or  the  Pacific  —  in 
which  China  and  Japan  have  a  great  part  to 
play,  and  in  which  we  also  have  interests,  as  have 
several  of  the  European  powers.  These  new 
interests  of  ours  had  become  important  before 
we  had  fairly  recognized  them.     A  war  in  asser- 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  217 

tion  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  brought  us  tempo-       chap.  v. 
rarily  to  Manila,  and  we  remained  at  Manila  for 
reasons  that  had  no  reference  at  all  to  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,  but  rather  to  our  new  Pacific  interests 
and  responsibilities. 

I  have  no  reason  to  mention  this  topic  except  Our 
by  way  of  these  passing  suggestions.  The  Mon-  <^<^^^^^<^^ 
roe  Doctrine  more  than  ever  is  the  great  cardinal 
principle  of  our  policy.  Our  chief  territorial 
expansion  is  to  be  in  our  own  hemisphere,  where 
conditions  favor  the  settlement  of  English-speak- 
ing men.  Our  position  in  the  Philippines  is 
exceptional,  and  is  perhaps  to  be  modified  in 
due  time  to  the  form  of  a  mere  friendly  protec- 
torate.    Of  one  thing  we  may  be  assured,   and   Our 

that  is  that  our  mission  there  is  destined  to  be   ''^'^^^^^'"^ 

%n  the 

one  of  beneficence  to  the  inhabitants  themselves.  Philip- 
I  must  confess  myself  at  a  loss  to  understand  the  P^^^* 
logic  of  those  who  would  quote  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  as  showing  conclusively  that 
our  presence  in  the  Philippines  is  contrary  to 
Jefferson's  principles  of  democracy  and  self- 
government. 

Mr.    Jefferson    had    some    sense    of    historical   Theele- 

processes,  and  also  some  clear  recognition  of  the   ^^^*  ''•' 

time 

need    of   considering  the   element   of   time.     He 


218 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 


Evolution 
of  our 
republic 


Rights  of 
communi- 
ties 


Practical 
causes  of 
American 
revolution 


pointed  out  with  frequency  that  circumstances 
had  brought  our  people  in  the  American  col- 
onies to  a  position  where,  beyond  any  other 
people  of  any  period,  we  were  fitted  to  enter 
upon  the  experiment  of  a  democratic  republican 
state.  Our  colonies  had  been  growing  for  more 
than  a  century  and  a  half,  and  had  been  evolving 
the  American  citizen  and  the  American  self- 
governing  community.  Until  these  two  develop- 
ments had  taken  place  there  could  have  been  no 
successful  American  republic.  Even  in  1774  and 
1775  Jefferson's  views  of  the  inherent  rights  of 
men,  as  respects  self-government,  had  to  do  not 
with  the  higher  attributes  of  national  or  imperial 
sovereignty,  but  with  the  practical,  every-day 
rights  of  communities  to  order  their  own  local 
affairs  and  to  take  part  in  imposing  the  taxes  that 
they  were  themselves  to  pay.  It  was  the  denial 
of  these  ordinary  rights  of  local,  concrete  self- 
government  to  the  American  colonies  that  led 
them  to  the  verge  of  a  revolution  that  otherwise 
would  not  have  been  defensible.  In  other  words, 
the  American  revolution  was  not,  either  in  Jeffer- 
son's mind,  or  in  that  of  any  other  leader,  founded 
upon  abstract  conceptions  of  the  rights  of  indi- 
vidual men,  but  rather  upon  practical  grievances. 


JEFFERSON'S   DOCTRINES   UNDER   NEW   TESTS  219 

The  established   order  of  the  world   required       chap,  v. 
the  exercise  by  some  accountable  government  of  Poi-mcal 
the  responsibilities  of  sovereignty  at  Manila.     In   evolutional 
that  exercise  the  United  States  became  the  legal 
successor  of  Spain.     It  became  incumbent  upon 
us,  however,  in  regard  to  the  people  themselves, 
to  assert  as  rapidly  as  possible  our  own  views  of 
the   value   of   individual   citizenship  and   of  self- 
government  in  communities,  as  a  foundation  for 
the  larger  institutions  of  the  province,  the  state, 
or  the  nation. 

Mr.     Jefferson's    letters    to    James    Madison,   Early 

Thomas  McKeen,  Governor  Claiborne,  and  vari-   ^^P^nence 

in  Louisi- 
ous  others,  about  a  hundred  years  ago,  relating  to   ana 

the  gradual  evolution  of  government  in  the  pur- 
chased Louisiana  Territory,  disclose  a  practical 
statesmanship  that  makes  it  clear,  even  down  to 
the  minute  details,  how  Jefferson  would  have 
approached  the  task  of  initiating  and  developing 
a  government  for  the  Philippine  Archipelago. 
And  I  may  add  that  I  do  not  see  any  appreciable 
difference  of  philosophy  or  principle  between  the 
Jeffersonian  views  and  those  which  Governors  Taft 
and  Wright  clearly  expressed,  and  which  were  sup- 
ported at  Washington  by  Presidents  McKinley  and 
Roosevelt,  and  by  Mr.  Root  as  Secretary  of  War. 


220 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 


We  do  not  show  our  belief  in  democracy  at 
Rational  home  by  forcing  the  ballot  into  the  hands  of  school 
democracy  children,  but  rather  by  our  definite  purpose  so 
to  train  the  school  children  that  in  due  time  they 
may  come  into  a  valuable  heritage  of  citizenship. 
In  like  manner  we  shall  fulfill  every  duty  and 
observe  every  principle  of  democracy  in  the 
Philippines  if  we  introduce  popular  and  repre- 
sentative institutions  just  as  rapidly  as  may  be 
consistent  with  the  maintenance  of  order  and  the 
enforcement  of  justice  between  man  and  man. 

It  is  not  impossible,  furthermore,  that  our 
experience  in  the  Philippines  and  elsewhere  may 
help  us  to  understand  better  the  evolutionary 
character  of  some  of  our  problems  nearer  home. 
We  have  at  times  found  the  difficulties  confront- 
ing our  democratic  institutions  to  be  so  dishearten- 
ing that  we  have  allowed  the  pessimists  to  raise 
their  insidious  doubts  as  to  the  fundamental 
value  of  democracy  and  as  to  the  future  of  our 
system.  Here,  again,  I  do  not  know  any  wiser 
teacher  to  follow  than  Mr.  Jefferson,  nor  any 
better  dictum  than  that  the  ultimate  cure  for  the 
ills  of  democracy  is  to  be  found  in  democracy 
itself. 

In  Jefferson's  time  it  required  great  faith  and 


Light  on 
our  nearer 
■problems 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  221 

clear  insight  to  hold   in   an   unqualified   manner       chap.  v. 
to  the   novel   doctrine  of   the    right-mindedness,    7^^^  ^^^_ 
capacity,  and  wisdom  of  the  plain  people,  and  to   trine  that 

the  7)€07)lc 

the   view   that   government    should    rest   on   the  hie 

broadest    possible    basis.     Rousseau    and    other 

French  writers,  it  is  true,  had  promulgated  such 

ideas.     But  they  argued  in  the  sphere  of  abstract 

discussion,   and   not   at   all   in   that   of  practical 

politics.     Such   views   in   England   were   of  slow 

and  cautious  growth,  and  even  to  our  own  day 

it  is  the  taxpayer  —  rather  than  the  man  —  who 

casts  a  British  ballot,   while  a  single  proprietor 

may  vote  in  as  many  different  places  as  he  owns 

property.     The  practical  doctrine  of  democracy,    Jefferson 

that  is  to  say,  of  the  plain  people,  as  the  depository   ^  ^  ^      , 
•^  r  r      I  r  J     expounder 

of  political  power,  the  doctrine  so  firmly  held  in 

a  later  period  by  Abraham  Lincoln,  was,  above 

all,  the   Jeffersonian  doctrine.     Of  all  the  men 

who  had  lived  in  the  world  up  to  his  time,  he 

expounded  that  idea  most  influentially.     It  was 

his  leadership  of  a  school  of  American  politics 

and  statecraft,  more  than  anything  else,  that  gave 

firm  establishment  to  the  broad  democratic  ex-   "  Happi- 

periment   in  this  country.     "The   only  orthodox   ^^^^  "^ 

•^  general 

object,"  he  declared,  "of  the  institution  of  gov-   mass" 
ernment,    is   to    secure    the    greatest    degree    of 


222         THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  V.       happiness  possible  to  the  general  mass  of  those 
associated  under  it." 

In  his  "Notes  on  Virginia,"  written  in  1782,  his 
observations  on  government  were  in  a  vein  well 
indicated  by  the  following  quotations :  — 

Argument         "Every  government  degenerates  when  trusted 

for  popular  ^^  ^j^^  ^^^^^^  ^^  ^j^^   people  alone.     The  people 
govern-  '^      ^  '^      '^ 

ment  themselves,   therefore,    are    its   only   safe   deposi- 

tories. To  render  even  them  safe,  their  minds 
must  be  improved  to  a  certain  degree."  On  the 
same  page  he  declared  :  — 

"  The  influence  over  government  must  be  shared 
among  all  the  people.  If  every  individual  which 
composes  their  mass  participates  in  the  ultimate 
authority,  the  government  will  be  safe:  because 
the  corrupting  the  whole  mass  will  exceed  any 
private  resources  of  wealth;  and  public  ones 
cannot  be  provided  but  by  levies  on  the  people. 
In  this  case  every  man  would  have  to  pay  his  own 
price.  The  government  of  Great  Britain  has 
been  corrupted  because  but  one  man  in  ten  has 
a  right  to  vote  for  members  of  Parliament.  The 
sellers  of  the  government,  therefore,  get  nine 
tenths  of  their  price  clear." 

For  a  period  of  more  than  fifty  years,  seem- 
ingly without    a    moment's    misgiving,    Jefferson 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  223 

proclaimed  this  political  gospel  of  popular  self-       chap.  v. 
government.     Many  of   the   half-hearted   repub-  j^nun- 
licans  of  his  time  favored  some  vestiges  of  hered-   wavering 
itary    or    aristocratic    or    exclusive    institutions. 
Jefferson  never  compromised  with  any  of  these 
opinions.     Early  in  his  career  he  wrote  to  General 
Washington,    "Experience    has    shown    that    the 
hereditary  branches  of  modern  government  are 
the  patrons  of  privilege  and  prerogative."     Since 
he  wrote  those  words,  the  world  has  had  a  further  Hereditary 
experience  of  such  an  hereditary  institution  as  the   P^^^^ 
British  House  of  Lords,  through  an  added  cen- 
tury and  a  quarter;    and  Mr.   Jefferson's  views 
remain  so  sound  and  judicious  that  they  might 
have  been  written  yesterday.     "The  true  founda- 
tion of  republican  government,"  he  wrote  at  a 
later  period,  "  is  the  equal  right  of  every  citizen 
in  his  person  and  property,  and  in  their  manage- 
ment." 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  idea  of  an   The  idea 
unrestricted  suffrage  was  a  very  novel  one  at  the  ^J  ^^^^'^^' 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.     What  Mr.   suffrage 
Jefferson's  views  had  always  been  he  made  clear 
in  a  letter  to  a  citizen  of  Virginia  which  he  wrote 
in  1800.     He  explained  that  the  new  constitution 
of  Virginia  had  been  formed  when  he  was  absent 


224 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 


For  the 

large 

electorate 


He  recog- 
nized facts 


attending  a  session  of  Congress;  and  then  he 
added,  "Had  I  been  here  (in  Virginia),  I  should 
probably  have  proposed  a  general  suffrage  because 
my  opinion  has  always  been  in  favor  of  it."  In 
notes  and  proposals  for  Virginia  constitutions  at 
several  earlier  periods,  Mr.  Jefferson  had  not 
wholly  ignored  the  prevailing  sentiment  in  favor 
of  a  property  qualification.  But  he  had  practically 
nullified  such  a  limitation  by  admitting  any  man 
who  was  liable  to  militia  duty.  I  must  not  dwell 
tediously  upon  this  point,  although  to  my  mind  it 
has  a  significance  not  merely  historical  or  aca- 
demic, but  practical  in  a  concrete  and  immedi- 
ate sense.  Mr.  Jefferson's  arguments  for  a  large 
electorate  were  many-sided,  and  they  were  to  my 
mind  as  a  whole  unanswerable.  But  it  would  be 
highly  unjust  to  his  doctrine  of  the  suffrage  to 
say  that  he  proclaimed  the  efficacy  of  universal 
suffrage,  at  all  times  and  under  all  circumstances, 
as  sure  to  work  out  good  results. 

As  a  general  maxim  he  was  ever  proclaiming 
the  inherent  right,  and  also  the  advantage,  of  self- 
government.  But  he  was  a  statesman,  and  he 
recognized  facts  in  any  given  situation.  And  so 
his  maxims  about  self-government  presupposed  a 
certain  degree  of  preparation  and  fitness.      Thus, 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  225 

after  he  had  purchased  Louisiana  from  France,       chap.  v. 
he  did  not  for  a  moment  allow  his  well-known   ^^  ^-^ 
philosophy    of    the    right    of    self-government    to  Louisiana 
obscure  his  practical  judgment  as  to  the  immedi- 
ate work  in  hand.     In  December,  1803,  he  wrote 
to  DeWitt   Clinton  as  follows:    "Although   it  is 
acknowledged    that    our    new    fellow-citizens    in 
Louisiana  are  as  yet  as  incapable  of  self-govern- 
ment as  children,  yet  some   in  Congress  cannot 
bring  themselves  to  suspend  its  principles  for  a 
single    moment.     The    temporary    or    territorial 
government   of  that   country,   therefore,   will  en- 
counter great  difficulty." 

Two  or  three  years  before  that,  in  a  letter  The  rule  of 
to  John  Breckinridffe,  he  pointed  out  a  radical  .  ^''^^1^'"'' 
difference  between  our  American  people  and  the 
people  of  France,  in  that,  while  our  countrymen 
are  impressed  from  their  cradle  with  the  sacred- 
ness  of  the  law  of  majority  rule,  the  people  of 
France,  on  the  other  hand,  to  quote  his  exact 
words,  "have  never  been  in  the  habit  of  self- 
government,  and  are  not  yet  in  the  habit  of 
acknowledging  that  fundamental  law  of  nature 
by  which  alone  self-government  can  be  exercised 
by  a  society  —  I  mean  the  lex  majoris  partis." 
Mr.  Jefferson,  of  course,  had  no  doubt  whatever 
Q 


226 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 

Need  of 
prelimi- 
nary pro- 
cesses 


The  test  of 
intelli- 
gence 


An  incen- 
tive to 
diligence 


as  to  the  applicability  in  due  time  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  self-government  in  Louisiana  on  the  one 
hand  and  in  France  on  the  other.  He  did  not 
waive  his  ideal,  but  merely  recognized  the  neces- 
sity of  preliminary  processes. 

In  his  later  years  he  came  more  and  more  to 
point  out  the  need  of  character  and  intelligence 
in  the  individual  citizen.  Thus,  in  commenting  in 
a  letter  to  a  foreign  correspondent  in  1814,  on  a 
new  constitution  that  had  been  drawn  up  for  Spain, 
he  wrote:  "There  is  one  provision  which  will  im- 
mortalize its  inventors.  It  is  that  which  after  a 
certain  epoch  disfranchises  every  citizen  who  can- 
not read  and  write.  This  is  new,  and  is  the  fruit- 
ful germ  of  the  improvement  of  everything  good, 
and  the  correction  of  everything  imperfect  in  the 
present  constitution.  This  will  give  you  an  en- 
lightened people  and  an  energetic  public  opinion." 

And  I  might  make  other  citations,  showing  an 
acceptance  by  Mr.  Jefferson  of  the  plan  of  an 
educational  restriction.  In  this  there  was  noth- 
ing inconsistent  with  his  previous  arguments  in 
favor  of  a  wide  extension  of  the  franchise.  The 
system  against  which  he  had  been  fighting  was 
one  which  tended  toward  the  perpetuation  of 
privileged  classes  in  the  community.     The  educa- 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  227 

tional  qualification,  as  he  favored  it,  had  no  such  chap.  v. 
tendency.  Its  object  was  not  to  make  permanent 
exclusion  of  the  masses  from  an  equal  part  in  the 
work  and  privilege  of  government,  but  rather  to 
provide  an  added  incentive  to  diligence  and  effort 
on  the  part  of  every  young  man  to  fit  himself  to 
meet  the  tests. 

There  has  been  a  period  in  our  recent  history   Making 

during  which  more  honor  has  been  paid  to  Jef-   ^  ^  ^^  ^^* 

jit 

ferson's  general  maxims  than  to  his  practical 
statesmanship.  It  was  precisely  because  he  be- 
lieved so  deeply  in  the  people  and  in  their  essential 
equality  of  rights  and  of  legal  status,  that  he 
attached  so  much  importance  to  the  work  of  mak- 
ing them  fit  to  be  intrusted  with  the  exercise  of 
their  natural  rights  as  members  of  the  political 
community.  Thus  Jeflferson  would  have  said  — 
if  I  have  any  understanding  of  the  principles  of 
his  statesmanship  —  that  it  was  the  great  business  Mistakes 
of  the  people  of  America,  in  the  critical  period  after  "^ 
the  year  1865,  not  to  confer  the  franchise  indis- 
criminately upon  all  comers,  but  rather  to  seek 
by  every  means  and  by  every  sacrifice  to  qualify 
all  comers  —  and  especially  their  children  —  for 
the  future  exercise  of  the  franchise  in  an  intelligent 
and  responsible  manner. 


228 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 

Too  easy 
naturaliza- 
tion 


Would 
Jefferson 
have  re- 
stricted 
immigra- 
tion? 


I  do  not  think,  then,  that  we  have  paid  the  high- 
est honor  to  Jeffersonian  principles  in  the  North 
by  admitting  to  the  franchise  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands, if  not  milHons,  of  foreigners  unable  to  speak 
the   English    language,    densely    ignorant    of   our 
forms  of  government,  and  to  a  large  extent  unable 
to  read  even  the  Latinic  dialects  or  the  Slavonic 
jargons  of  the  regions  from  which  they  have  come. 
It  is  not  strange,  under  such  circumstances,  that 
the  government  of  our  great  cities  has  been  cor- 
rupt and  inefficient.     The  conditions  of  immigra- 
tion  in   Jefferson's   time   were   so   different  that, 
while  he  made  many  observations  on  the  subject 
that  still  possess  value,  there  is  not  much  in  his 
writings  of  direct  application  to  our  recent  and 
present   experiences   on   that    score.     It   may   be 
clearly    inferred,    however,    that    Mr.    Jefferson 
would  have  favored  some  measure  to  restrict  the 
coming   of   undesirable   immigrants   in   excessive 
numbers ;  and  it  is  even  more  fairly  to  be  inferred 
that  he  would  have  extended  the  franchise  to  such 
immigrants  only  upon  evidence  in  each  individual 
case  of  the  possession  of  proper  knowledge  and 
capacity  to  take  part  in  the  government  of  Ameri- 
can communities. 

With  respect  to  pending  franchise  questions  in 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  229 

the  Southern  states,  I  have  no  word  of   a  con-       chap.  v. 
troversial    nature    to    utter.     An    electorate    once    yr^g 
broadened    to    the    utmost    possible    limits    is    a   Southern 

I  TO,  Tt  cJiXSC 

difficult  thing  to  contract.     The  ultimate  aim  of   pj.o6ie?ws 
statesmanship,  doubtless,  should  be  the  broaden- 
ing of  the  base  of  popular  government.     But  I  do 
not  think  there  is  any  gain  in  a  hastening  of  the 
process. 

After  all,  Mr.  Jefferson's  greatest  contribution   Education 

to  the  system  of  democracy  as  applied  in  practice   "'      **"'^*" 

manship 

was  his  doctrine  of  the  relation  of  the  government 
to  education.  He  believed  that  the  community 
as  a  whole  should  confer  upon  every  child  the 
opportunity  to  acquire  a  common  education,  and 
such  practical  knowledge  as  would  best  fit  it  for 
its  place  in  the  industrial  and  political  com- 
munity. To  his  mind  this  was  the  best  way  to 
meet  the  inequalities  of  wealth  and  condition 
that  otherwise  would  disturb  the  equilibrium  of  a 
democratic  state.  If  he  had  lived  to  our  day,  and  To  elevate 
had  found  large  elements  of  population  unquali-  ^^^_  citizen- 
fied  to  exercise  the  electoral  franchise,  he  would 
doubtless  have  advised  such  groups  or  factors  that 
their  true  interests  lay  in  other  directions  than 
politics  and  government.  But  with  equal  em- 
phasis he  would  have  urged  upon  the  community 


230 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


Every  ele- 
ment must 
he  im- 
proved 


CHAP.  V.  at  large  the  still  more  important  fact  that  there 
must  be  extraordinary  effort  used  to  elevate  every 
part  of  the  citizenship  of  the  country. 

All  classes,  races,  and  nationalities  must  in- 
evitably suffer  some  harm  and  loss  through  the 
degradation  of  any  single  element  or  factor  of  the 
population;  and  on  the  other  hand,  each  element 
of  the  community  must  experience  some  distinct 
gain  as  a  result  of  every  effort  made  to  improve 
the  intelligence  and  general  condition  of  any  other 
element  or  factor.  Happily,  there  are  not  want- 
ing the  signs  that  the  country  is  coming  to  an 
understanding  of  this  fact.  The  most  eager  pu- 
pils of  our  public  schools  in  New  York,  Chicago, 
and  many  other  Northern  cities  are  the  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  children  from  the  homes  of 
parents  who  do  not  speak  the  English  language. 

The  schools  The  lives  of  American  statesmen  and  the  prin- 

,  ., ,        ,    ciples  of  American  government  form  the  themes 

cmldren  of        *-  ° 

and  topics  that  more  than  all  others  attract  and 
inspire  those  sons  of  Italian,  Russian-Polish,  and 
Hungarian  parents  in  the  tenement  quarters  of 
New  York  and  Chicago,  as  they  throng  the  free 
circulating  libraries  for  books,  and  as  they  meet 
in  their  boys'  clubs  and  debating  societies.  I 
have  no  doubt  whatever  as  to  the  useful  future  of 


%mmi- 
grants 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  231 

these  boys  as  American  voters,  although  I  have       chap,  v, 
had  many  misgivings  as  to  the  propriety  of  en- 
franchising their  fathers. 

There  was  danger,  a  few  years  ago,  lest  these   Character 

schools  might  give  to  the  children  of  hard-working  °\    ^, 

^       ^  ^    schools 

though  ignorant  immigrants  just  enough  smatter-  themselves 
ing  of  book  knowledge,  and  just  enough  contact 
with  people  of  better  economic  and  social  condi- 
tion than  their  parents,  to  spoil  them  for  the 
places  they  ought  to  fill.  Careful  investigation 
twelve  or  fifteen  years  ago  convinced  me  that 
along  with  the  immeasurable  good  our  public 
schools  were  accomplishing,  they  were  also  doing 
some  serious,  though  incidental  harm.  They  were 
detaching  the  sons  of  immigrants  from  manual 
pursuits,  while  not  helping  them  to  an}i;hing 
better.     But  the  schools  are  now  adapting  them-   Meeting 

selves  to  the  new  conditions  they  have  to  meet,     / 

■^  changed 

and  they  are  everywhere  giving  emphasis  to  the  conditions 
idea  of  the  great  dignity  and  value  of  labor,  while 
more  and  more  they  are  combining  manual  train- 
ing and  the  teaching  of  practical  arts  with  mental 
and  moral  discipline,  and  with  instruction  in 
language,  numbers,  and  geography,  in  drawing, 
and  in  the  elements  of  science.  Mr.  Jefferson's 
broad  schemes  of  education  were  scientific  enough 


232 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 

The  right 
kind  of 
instruction 


Educa- 
tional 
systems 


Jefferson's 
lifelong 
work  for 
education 


and  flexible  enough  to  admit  all  such  later  dif- 
ferentiations as  the  kindergarten  and  the  practical 
trade  school,  as  well  as  the  older  grammar  school 
and  the  university.  To  Mr.  Cabell  in  1820  he 
wrote,  "Promote  in  every  order  of  men  the 
degree  of  instruction  proportioned  to  their  con- 
dition and  to  their  views  in  life." 

Upon  nothing  was  his  heart  more  set  than  upon 
the  systematic  ordering  of  education,  so  that  its 
benefits  might  be  thoroughly  distributed.  Cir- 
cumstances have  made  it  possible  to  carry  out  his 
views  of  a  state  system  more  perfectly  perhaps  in 
such  northwestern  commonwealths  as  Michigan 
and  Wisconsin  than  anywhere  else  in  this  country. 
And  where  such  systems  exist  at  their  best,  it  is 
wonderful  to  note  their  potency  in  the  assimi- 
lation of  the  new  and  seemingly  unpromising 
relays  of  immigrants  that  have  come  in  recent 
years  from  Eastern  and  Southern  Europe. 

The  South  has  responded  splendidly  of  late,  at 
great  sacrifice,  to  the  demand  for  schools;  and  I 
am  confident  that  there  will  be  no  relaxation  of 
efi^ort.  Nevertheless  there  cannot  be  too  frequent 
a  re-reading  of  the  views  of  Mr.  Jefferson  upon  the 
importance  of  education,  and  upon  its  funda- 
mental place  in  a  democracy. 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  233 

His  views  of  the  relation  of  education  to  the       chap.  v. 

state  were  adopted  early  in  his  career,  and  were 

propounded  with  his  very  latest  breath.     I  deem 

it  remarkable  that  he  should  have  declared  in  a 

letter  to  Madison  as  early  as  1787  that  the  task 

and  function  of  giving  "  information  to  the  people 

is  the  most  certain,  and  the  most  legitimate  engine 

of  the   government."     Even   in  our  own   day   it    The  first 

seems  a  bold  and  advanced  idea  to  declare,  with-  /"^^'^""  ^/ 

govern- 

out  any  reserve  or  qualification,  that  education  is  ment 
the  first  duty  and  chief  function  of  government. 
The  whole  civilized  world  is  only  now  beginning 
cautiously  to  recast  itself  upon  a  glimmering  con- 
ception of  the  truth  of  that  idea.  Mr.  Jefferson 
stated  it  again  in  his  first  inaugural  message. 
In  1810  he  wrote  to  John  Tyler:  — 

"I  have  two  great  measures  at  heart,  without   Jefferson's 

which  no  republic  can  maintain  itself  in  strength.  ^^^   ^^ 

'^         expres- 

1.  That  of  general  education,  to  enable  every  sions 
man  to  judge  for  himself  what  will  secure  or  en- 
danger his  freedom.  2.  To  divide  every  county 
into  hundreds,  of  such  size  that  all  the  children  of 
each  will  be  within  reach  of  a  central  school  in  it." 
In  later  writings  he  advocated  a  special  tax  for 
the  creation  and  maintenance  of  his  system  of 
schools  graded  from  the  primary  classes  to  the 


234  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  V.  university.  His  vindication  of  the  duty  of  the 
community  to  draw  by  taxation  upon  the  resources 
of  the  rich  to  pay  for  the  schooHng  of  the  poor  was 
so  complete  that  nobody  has  ever  been  able  to 
improve  upon  it. 

The  train-         And  this  doctrine  of  his,  in  its  various  implica- 

t'ng  oj     e      tJojis^  ojoes  to  the  heart  of  the  new  social  and  indus- 

'people 

trial  conditions  we  see  about  us  in  this  twentieth 

century.     The   Jeffersonian   principle  is  that  the 

supreme  and  imperative  duty  of  the  state  is  the 

training  of   the  people  to  be  good   citizens  and 

useful  and  capable  members  of  society ;  and  again 

and  again  is  it  set  forth  in  the  utterances  of  Mr. 

Jefferson  that  the   safety  and   well-being  of  the 

state  lie  along  this  path  of  its  duty  and  its  burden. 

Our  indus-       We    have    emerged    with    startling    suddenness 

upon  a  period  of  undreamt-of  industrial  combina- 
society  ^  ^ 

tions  and  prodigious  aggregations  of  productive 
capital.  There  are  moments  when  it  seems  as 
if  the  concentrated  power  of  the  new  industrial 
society  is  becoming  so  great  that  it  must  sub- 
ordinate to  its  purposes  the  organs  and  agencies 
of  the  political  society.  In  many  particular  in- 
In  relation  stances,  temporarily  at  least,  such  subordination 
meni  ^^^   been   too   visible   to   be    denied.     The    only 

remedy  lies  in  the  training  of  the  individual  citi- 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  235 

zen.      Industrial  combinations  will  work  evil,  or       chap.  v. 
they    will   work  good,  according  as  the  commu- 
nity itself    is    prepared    to    shape    them    to    the 
common  advantage. 

It  is  not  true  that  the  man  is  diminishing  in  Value  of 
importance  as  compared  with  the  dollar.  For-  '^^  ^"^ 
timately,  just  the  opposite  is  demonstrably  the 
case.  The  new  industrial  combinations  rest  even 
more  necessarily  upon  the  cooperation  of  talent 
and  skill  than  upon  the  dead  weight  of  united 
capital  alone.  There  never  was  a  time  when  it 
so  much  behooved  the  young  man  to  invest  in 
himself,  and  when  the  relative  value  of  personal 
training  and  acquired  aptitude  was  so  great  in 
comparison  with  that  of  accumulated  capital. 

The  ultimate  goal  in  a  democracy  is  not  strife    Unified 

and  discord,  but  political  harmony  and  concord;   ^-^ 

hence- 

and  it  is  similarly  true  that  in  the  economic  life  of  forth 
the  community  the  better  hopes  reach  far  beyond 
the  wastefulness  and  strife  of  the  old  competitive 
system,  and  demand  the  substitution  for  it  of 
cooperative  methods  and  scientific  organization. 
We  are  certainly  entering  upon  a  period  of 
unified  efi'ort,  from  which  there  can  be  no 
return  to  the  competitive  system  as  it  has  existed 
heretofore. 


236 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 

Methods 
of  control 


Jefferson 
on  limit- 
ing for- 
tunes 


And  respecting  this  new  and  close  organization 
of  industry,  several  methods  of  future  control  are 
readily  conceivable.  One  method  is  that  of  con- 
trol by  individuals,  or  by  syndicates  composed  of 
comparatively  few  men  whose  fortunes  can  be  told 
in  hundreds  or  thousands  of  millions.  A  second 
method  is  that  of  the  radical  enlargement  of  the 
functions  of  the  political  community,  so  that  the 
people  themselves,  organized  as  the  state,  may 
assume  control,  one  after  another,  of  the  great 
businesses  and  industries  of  the  country.  A  third 
method  is  that  of  the  gradual  distribution  of  the 
shares  of  stock  of  industrial  corporations  among 
the  workers  themselves  and  the  people  at  large, 
until  in  one  industry  after  another  there  shall 
have  come  into  being  something  like  a  true  coop- 
erative system  managed  on  public  representative 
principles  quite  analogous  to  the  carrying  on  of 
our  political  institutions.  Mr.  Jefferson  declared 
himself  clearly  and  strongly  against  any  arbitrary 
limitation  of  individual  wealth.  He  was  willing 
to  have  governmental  experiments  tried,  and  was 
not,  as  many  people  suppose,  the  apostle  of  the 
unqualified  doctrine  that  government  is  a  neces- 
sary evil,  that  the  best  government  is  the  one  that 
governs  least,  and  in  any  case  the  functions  of 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  237 

government  should  be  negative  rather  tlian  posi-       chap.  v. 
tive.     The  tendency  of  his  teaching  was,  indeed,   Qovern- 

toward  as  Httle  interference  in  industrial  aflFairs   "*^"'  '^"^ 

XTtdzistvij 
on  the  part  of  government  as  circumstances  would 

permit.     This,    however,   was   always   subject   in 

his  teaching  to  the  broad  principle  that  the  object 

of  government  is  to  promote  the  well-being  and 

happiness  of   the    greater   number,  and   that    its 

practical  functions  may  therefore  be  varied  from 

time  to  time  to  meet  new  conditions. 

Thus  all  the  new  functions  of   municipal  gov-   Cities  and 

ernment,  in  a  period  when  the  majority  are  com-      ^  .  ^■^^^~ 
'■  J        ^  soman 

ing  to  live  under  urban  conditions,  are  strictly  in  views 
harmony  with  the  Jeffersonian  teaching.  If  the 
common  welfare  should  some  time  in  the  future 
demand  the  municipal  operation  of  street  rail- 
ways, or  even  the  national  ownership  and  opera- 
tion of  the  general  railroad  system,  surely  the 
shade  of  Mr.  Jefferson  w^ould  not  arise  to  utter 
any  warning  whatever. 

In  his  own  day  he  observed  that  strong  men  as  Fortunes 

a  rule  make  their  own  fortunes,  and  that  under  "J!^  '^^*'' 

aistribu- 

our  laws  of  inheritance  wealth  tends  in  the  third   tion 
or  fourth   generation   toward   a  distribution   that 
robs  it  of  any  particular  danger  to  the  less  fortu- 
nate members  of  the  community.     There  is  no 


238 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 


Safety  in 
numbers 


Thefuture 
belongs  to 
the  workers 


reason  at  this  moment  to  regard  Mr.  Jefferson's 
opinion  on  that  subject  as  out  of  date. 

In  other  words,  Jefferson's  dictum  holds  per- 
fectly good  to-day  that  our  governmental  safety 
lies  in  numbers;  and  that  concentrated  wealth, 
whether  in  individual  or  corporate  hands,  cannot 
possibly  in  the  long  run  take  away  any  of  the 
liberties  or  rights  of  an  enfranchised  people  in- 
telligent enough  to  know  what  it  wants.  We 
must  to  some  extent  pass  through  the  phase  of 
industrial  control  at  the  hands  of  individuals 
holding  disproportionate  wealth  and  power;  but 
this  can  last  only  a  little  time.  The  growth  of 
the  general  wealth  of  the  country  is  at  a  higher 
rate  than  the  aggregation  of  riches  in  the  hands  of 
multi-millionaires. 

There  was  a  time  when  the  man  of  moderate 
fortune  could  afford  to  be  without  any  training 
for  a  place  in  the  professional  or  business  world. 
But  the  fixed  fortune  now  yields  much  less  in- 
come; while  the  newer  demands  of  life  require 
a  larger  outgo.  Even  the  skilled  laborer  has 
steadily  shortening  hours  and  constantly  increasing 
wages.  The  future  belongs  clearly  to  the  work- 
ers, and  they  in  due  time  will  become  the  asso- 
ciated capitalists.     I  believe  it  will  come  to  be  a 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRLNES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  239 

matter  of  comparative  indifference  whether  the  chap.  v. 
poHtical  society  that  we  call  the  State  gradually 
absorbs  the  industrial  organization,  or  whether  the 
two  shall  run  on  indefinitely  side  by  side.  In 
either  case  the  principles  of  democracy  must  have 
a  higher  potency  than  ever;  and  more  than  ever 
they  must  rest  upon  the  basis  of  a  universal  train- 
ing for  citizenship  and  for  honorable  member- 
ship in  the  local  and  the  general  community. 
"One  good  government,"  Jefferson  observed,  "is  Advance  of 

a  blessing  to  the  whole  world "  —  having  refer-  represent- 
ative 
ence  to  its  illuminating  example.     In  1823,  m  a  go^gj-n- 

letter   to   Albert    Gallatin,    he   declared,    with   a  orient 

wisdom  that  the   flight   of  years   only  serves  to 

illustrate:    "The     advantages    of    representative 

government,  exhibited  in  England  and  America, 

and  recently  in  other  countries,  will  procure  its 

establishment  everywhere  in  a  more  or  less  perfect 

form ;  and  this  \vi\\  insure  the  amelioration  of  the 

condition  of  the  world.     It  will  cost  years  of  blood 

and  be  well  worth  them." 

Let    me    conclude    with    one  more   quotation  A  final 

from  Thomas  Jefferson,  which  I  must  commend 

to  the  doubters  and  pessimists,  and  which  seems 

to  me  to  embody  as   much   political,  economic, 

and  ethical  wisdom,  applicable  to  present  condi- 


240         THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  V.  tions,  as  any  other  single  utterance  from  the  pen 
of  any  other  American  statesman.  What  I  am 
about  to  quote  was  written  by  Mr.  Jefferson  in 
1817  to  a  friend  in  France,  M.  de  Marbois :  — 
"  I  have  much  confidence  that  we  shall  proceed 
successfully  for  ages  to  come,  and  that,  contrary 
to  the  principle  of  Montesquieu,  it  will  be  seen 
that,  the  larger  the  extent  of  country  the  more 
firm  its  republican  structure,  if  founded,  not  on 
conquest,  but  in  principles  of  compact  and 
equality.  My  hope  of  its  duration  is  built  much 
on  the  enlargement  of  the  resources  of  life,  going 
hand  in  hand  with  the  enlargement  of  territory, 
and  the  belief  that  men  are  disposed  to  live 
honestly,  if  the  means  of  doing  so  are  open  to 
them." 


By  albert   SHAW,  LL.D. 

Editor  of  "  The  Review  of  Reviews  " 

Political  Problems  of 
American  Development 

The  Columbia  University  Press  Cloth,  $1.50  net 


Nine  Lectures  delivered  as  the  opening  course  of  the  Blumenthal  Founda- 
tion at  Columbia  University,  on  these  topics :  — 

I.   The  Nature  and  Meaning  of  our  Political  Life. 
IL    Problems  of  Population  and  Citizenship. 
in.   Immigration  and  Race  Questions. 
IV.    Settlement  and  Use  of  National  Domain. 
V.   The  Citizen  and  His  Part  in  Politics. 
VI.    Party  Machinery  and  Democratic  Expression. 
VII.   Control  of  Railways  and  Trusts. 
VIII.    Problems  of  Tariff  and  Money. 

IX.    Problems  of  Foreign  Policy  and  Expansion. 


"  The  last  word  of  the  title  is  the  key-word  of  the  entire  series  of  lectures. 
Each  one  of  the  chief  problems  of  a  political  nature  that  have  presented  them- 
selves for  solution  during  our  national  existence  is  considered  in  its  bearing 
on  the  general  course  of  our  national  evolution.  In  a  word,  the  book  as  a 
whole  is  a  study  of  national  development,  dealing  not  with  the  questions  of 
constitutional  law  that  vexed  the  minds  of  the  fathers,  but  with  the  practical 
difficulties  that  democracy  has  continuously  encountered  in  its  attempt  to  real- 
ize the  national  ideals  in  the  American  environment.  Immigration  and  race 
questions,  problems  relating  to  our  public  lands,  party  machinery,  the  regula- 
tion of  the  railroads  and  the  great  industrial  trusts,  the  tariff,  the  currency, 
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t 

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Evil;  Great  Corporations  and  the  Law;  Organized  Labor  and  Monopoly; 
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